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EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



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EEVELATION AND SCIENCE 



IN RESPECT TO 



BUNSEN'S BIBLICAL RESEARCHES, 
THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, and 
THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY : 

WITH AN EXAMINATION OF CERTAIN STATEMENTS PUT FORTH BY THE REMAINING AUTHORS OF 

ESSAYS AND REVIEWS. 



BY THE 

REV. BOUECHIEE WEEY SAVILE, M.A. 

C URATE 03? TATTING-STONE : 
AUTHOR 01? " LYRA SACRA," " THE FIRST AND SECOND ADVENT," ETC. ETC. 



" Revelation and Science are both beams of Light from the same Sun of Eternal Truth." 

Dr. Pye Smith. 

" Christianity has everything to hope, and nothing to fear, from the advancement of Philosophy." 

Dr. Chalmers. 



LONDON: 

LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS. 

1862. 



PREFACE. 



THE object of the present work is to show the con- 
nexion which exists between the statements in the 
book containing the Revelation of the Divine will to man, 
and modern discoveries in the various departments of 
Science, in contradistinction to the views and opinions 
put forth hi the well-known " Essays and Eeviews." 

The most prominent subjects which it has been 
thought advisable to consider separately are — Bunserts 
Biblical Researches, in respect to the chronology of 
Scripture and the duration of man upon earth ; the 
Evidences of Christianity, with special reference to the 
" Origin of Species," as determined by Holy Scripture ; 
and the Mosaic Cosmogony, as being in perfect harmony 
with all that Science has brought to light by means of 
geological research. Hence we have selected the three 
Essays bearing those titles for separate and careful 
examination. 

But, inasmuch as the four remaining Essays contain 
a variety of subjects which require much consideration, 
we have attempted to examine them under the separate 
heads of — 1. Holy Scripture, in its integrity, inspira- 
tion, and interpretation. 2. Judaism, as regards the 



vi 



PREFACE. 



present position of the Jews and their future prospects. 

3. Romanism, viewed in its relation to real Catholicism. 

4. On the distinction between the Ancient and Modern 
Creeds. 5. Buddhism, as having no claim to being termed 
" the Gospel of India." And, 6. Rationalism, in its nega- 
tive aspect, as compared with the true theology which 
Scripture teaches. 

These are the chief matters which have been handled 
in the following work. Our object has been to show, 
not only the all-perfect and instructive harmony which 
necessarily exists between Revelation and Science, — 
between God's Word and God's Works, — but how 
susceptible of confutation are the errors and mistakes 
of the several authors of " Essays and Keviews " in their 
denial of the same. » 

In thus exposing the failings of our clerical brethren, 
we have endeavoured, with what success our readers must 
judge, to avoid that rock on which theological controver- 
sialists are too often apt to split, as it has given rise to a 
well-known and unhappy proverb amongst us ; and the 
way by which some, especially platform orators, have 
sought the condemnation of the authors of " Essays and 
Eeviews " is a melancholy illustration thereof. We sin- 
cerely deprecate such a mode of crushing all freedom of 
inquiry as unwise, impolitic, and as a serious infraction of 
that boundless and fathomless law of love, which is both 
the mainspring and the foundation of the Gospel of Christ. 
For, as one honoured name amongst us, whose writings 
bear the stamp of primitive catholicity more than perhaps 
any other writer of the present day, has most justly ob- 
served : — " L6ve is the sign of life, ' our safety in sacra- 
ments,' as St. Augustine writes; the mark of 'Christ's 



PEEFACE. 



Vll 



disciples, the beginning and ending, the mother and 
foundation of all virtues, the earnest of the Spirit inviting 
and waiting for its fulness. Martyrdom, without love, 
were death to the soul ; faith, the confession of devils ; 
sacraments were received to our hurt ; miracles, a testi- 
mony against us ; the tongues of angels, a tinkling cym- 
bal ; the knowledge of mysteries, a swelling vanity ; but 
love, as it cannot be without faith, so it gives or replaces 
knowledge, or wisdom, or speech, or (if they be not 
unlovingly laid aside) even sacraments themselves, for 
God is love." 

It is in this spirit, and with such an effective weapon 
of controversy, that we may best hope to succeed in con- 
fating those with whom we, as consistent Churchmen, 
are necessarily at issue, according to the admirable advice 
so happily expressed by George Herbert : - — 

" Be calm in arguing, for fierceness makes 
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy. 
Why should I feel another man's mistakes 
More than his sickness or his poverty ? 
In love I should ; but anger is not love, 
Nor wisdom neither ; therefore, gently move." 

If it be possible, without any infraction of that heaven- 
born principle, which, as St. Paul teaches, " covereth 
(a-Tsysi) all things," to assign a reason for this tendency 
to " Negative Theology " on the part of those whose 
N education and profession should alike forbid such am- 
biguous and defective teaching of the great Christian 
verities as the authors of " Essays and Ee views " have too 
clearly displayed, it is to be traced, we venture to think, 
to a deficiency of study of the letter of Scripture, on the 
one hand, and to a want of that true faith which inflames 



vm 



PREFACE. 



the heart, and invigorates the understanding, and inclines 
it to a right reception of the spirit of Scripture on the 
other. " The study of God's word," taught the great St. 
Bernard, " and the mere reading of it, differ as much as 
the friendship of such who every day converse lovingly 
together doth from the acquaintance with a stranger at 
an inn or a casual acquaintance whom he salutes in the 
street." What the saintly Augustine remarked concern- 
ing a spiritual understanding of the 119th Psalm is 
equally applicable to the whole of the Old and the New 
Testament. " The more open it seemeth, the deeper it 
seemeth to me ; so that I cannot even show how deep 
it is." 

So faith, which the inspired writer, as we must con- 
tinue to call him, notwithstanding the denial of " Essays 
and Ee views," terms " the substance of things hoped for, 
the evidence of things not seen," and which alone is 
genuine, fruitful, and salvific, establishes the soul on Him 
who is the Eock of Ages, purines the heart, empties it of 
the love of sin, and then fills it with the consolation of 
Christ and hope of eternal glory. It draws the heart as 
well as the head to a firm acquiescence in the truth of 
Scripture above all natural methods, and is, as St. Basil 
calls it, " the effect, not of geometrical conclusions, but 
the result of the energy of the Spirit." Well, therefore, 
would it be if every one with a leaning to the " Negative 
Theology " could sufficiently humble himself to receive 
and adopt the confession made by Anselm, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, during the period commonly known as " the 
dark ages :" — " I do not seek, Lord, to penetrate thy 
depths ; I by no means think my intellect equal to them ; 
but I long to understand in some degree thy truth, which 



PREFACE. 



ix 



my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to under- 
stand that I may believe ; but I believe that I may under- 
stand." For while humility on the one hand ranks right 
nobly and highly in the scale of Christian graces, on the 
other, faith, which is the grace of care and the antidote 
to scepticism, in its genuineness and power may be com- 
pared to the "bird, which rejoices in contending with 
wild, adverse winds, or balances itself on the bosom of 
the inimitable sky. Thus, even the difficulties that oppose 
it, faith meets unbaffled with a cheerful confidence ; while 
on the incomprehensible nature of God it reposes as on a 
vast deep or a boundless heaven ; awed with that vastness 
which is without limit, and at rest on that centre which 
hath no circumference." * 

B. W. S. 



* The beginning of the Book of Genesis, by Isaac Williams. 



Tattingstone Rectory, Christmas, 1861. 



a 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. PAGE 

I — Bunsen's Biblical Researches 3 

II. — Bunsen's Biblical Researches — continued . . .53 

III. — On the Study of the Evidences of Christianity . 171 

IV. — Mosaic Cosmogony 223 
V.— Statements of the Remaining Essayists . , , 266 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE 



B 



BUNSEN'S BIBLICAL RESEAKCHES. 



CHAPTER I. 

These is a story on record of a certain author, who, after 
long hesitation, declined publishing his intended work, 
because he was unable to decide whether it should be 
commenced by a " Prefatory Introduction " or an 44 Intro- 
ductory Preface." Had Dr. Temple so far followed this 
example, as to refuse to allow his Essay to be used as 
a suitable introduction or preface to that which subse- 
quently follows, it would have been better for his fame 
as a minister of the Church of Christ. For if language, 
whether oral or written, is still to be accepted in its plain 
and unmystical meaning, and not used as a vehicle for 
concealing the thought, as the witty Italian 1 defined it, 
very wide is the difference between the theological bear- 
ings of the Essayist, whose work stands first, and those of 
the Reviewer of 44 Bunsen's Biblical Researches." For 
.notwithstanding the disclaimer with which the 44 Essays 
and Reviews " are introduced 44 To the Reader " of there 
being any connexion between the respective authors, and 
which the continued republication of the work in its 



1 This bon mot, commonly attributed to Talleyrand, was originally 
from Aretino, an Italian of tlie 1 4th century. 

b 2 



4 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



original form makes it somewhat difficult to understand, 
it is, to say the least, unfortunate for Dr. Temple, that his 
Essay is the selected porch for the subsequent super- 
structure. Indeed, so objectionable do some of the state- 
ments appear in Dr. Williams's Essay, that we are afraid 
of breaking that precious and boundless law of Charity, 
which the Gospel so highly exalts, if we gave utterance 
to the feelings which spontaneously arise in the mind 
when reflecting on the lengths in scepticism which a pro- 
fessing Christian, much more an English clergyman, can 
permit himself to go antagonistic to that faith, and that 
revealed Word of God, which he is bound by every tie 
to defend. We, therefore, confine ourselves to calling 
attention to the notice bestowed upon this Essay by a 
friendly reviewer, who has with justice remarked that, 
" anything more 6 unbecoming' than some of Dr. Wilhams's 
remarks we never have read in writings professing to be 
written seriously." 1 

It is necessary, however, to distinguish at the com- 
mencement between the statements of the Essayist him- 
self, and those of the distinguished German, whose " Bib- 
lical Eesearches " have formed the ground-work of his 
own review. 

Let us then consider what the Essayist says in pro- 
pria persona, and subsequently the Eesearches into Bible 
History of that great name under whose shadow he now 
presents himself to the world. 

§ 1. Dr. Williams says, " Criticism reduces the strange- 
ness of the past into harmony with the present. The 
truth itself may have been apprehended in various degrees 
by servants of God, of old, as now. Instead of, with 
Tertullian, what is first is truest, what comes of God is 
true " (p. 50). It is, we think, unfair criticism to make 
any distinction between Tertullian's golden canon and the 



1 Edinburgh Review, No. ccxxx. p. 479. 



WHAT IS TRUTH? 



5 



deduction of the Essayist. For the exact words of that 
father, in a work composed after his lapse, " Whatsoever 
was first, that is truth ; whatsoever is later, that is adul- 
terated," 1 only affirm that He, who is revealed to us as 
" the Way, the Truth, and the Life," the God-man, Christ 
Jesus, promised the perpetual presence of the Holy Ghost 
to guide the Church into all truth, and to abide with her 
for ever, and that those who introduced novelties, which 
had not been taught 44 from the beginning," adulterated 
the truth, and were departing from Him who is the 
source of all truth. It would have been well had the 
Essayist remembered and applied the saying of St. Augus- 
tine to himself, when most unphilosophically writing 
about the strangeness of the past harmonising with the 
present. "What is truth?" exclaimed that great theolo- 
gian, " Who can teach it me, save He that enlighteneth 
my heart, and discovereth its dark corners ? " 2 

§ 2. " We cannot encourage a remorseless criticism of 
Gentile histories," argues Dr. Williams, " and escape its 
contagion when we approach Hebrew annals ; nor ac- 
knowledge a Providence in Jewry without owning that it 
may have comprehended sanctities elsewhere. But the 
moment we examine fairly the religions of India and of 
Arabia, or even those of primeval Hellas and Latium, we 
find they appealed to the better side of our nature, and their 
essential strength lay in the elements of good which they 
contained, rather than in any satanic corruption " (p. 51). 
Those who, discarding Dr. Temple's theory of " occasional 
. inaccuracy," or Mr. Wilson's of " the human element " of 
the Bible, believe that " the Hebrew annals," as forming 
a portion of God's word, have been as much inspired by 
Him, as the doctrinal or prophetic parts of Scripture, so 
that the sacred writers could not and did not record un- 



1 Adv. Praxeam, § 11. 2 St. Aug. Confess., lib. xi. § 16. 

B 3 



6 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



truths, do not fear criticism, however " remorseless" so 
long as it is fair, when applied to any portion of the 
oracles of God. Nay, with unhesitating confidence we 
challenge it, being fully persuaded that every fresh dis- 
covery in the paths of Science can only tend to show its 
perfect harmony with Kevelation, as we shall have little 
difficulty in proving when we come to examine the nume- 
rous charges which Bunsen brings against the genuineness 
of the historic statements of the Bible. Natural religion, 
independent of revelation, teaches us that an overruling 
Providence hath been recognised, external to "Jewry," 
during the first four millennaries of man's existence upon 
earth ; but to say that criticism has discovered " sanctities 
elsewhere " during the period that God in His inscrutable 
wisdom confined the revelation of Himself to one favoured 
and chosen race, is alike contrary to Bible history and to 
fact. And we confidently appeal to any one who will 
" examine fairly " the religions either of India, Greece, or 
Borne, with the only true one, revealed whether in the 
Old or the New Testament, to say if such did really 
" appeal to the better side of our nature," or that they 
betrayed any signs of a divine origin. The anecdote of 
an Indian Brahmin, on returning a lent Bible to an Eng- 
lish missionary, affords an admirable commentary of what 
Bevelation declared respecting the religion of heathen 
Borne, as well as of testifying to its similarity with that of 
India. " You tell me, Padre," said the Brahmin, " that 
this book was written many hundreds of years ago, and 
you pretend that it is inspired by the unseen God, and 
that every part of it contains truth and nothing but the 
truth. Now, I will prove to you the falseness of this in 
one instance, at least. For I find in the Epistle of St. 
Paul to the Bomans such a true and exact picture of the 
religion of my countrymen, that I am convinced it must 
have been written since you became acquainted with the 
people of India." 



RATIONALISTIC COWAEDICE. 



7 



§ 3. " If," Dr. Williams declares, " we are to retain the 
old Anglican foundations of research and fair statement, 
we must revise some of the decisions provisionally given 
upon imperfect evidence ; or if we shrink from doing so, we 
must abdicate our ancient claim to build upon the truth ; 
and our retreat will be either to Eome, as some of our lost 
ones have consistently seen, or to some form, equally evil, 
of darkness voluntary. The attitude of too many English 
scholars before the last monster out of the deep is that of 
the degenerate senators before Tiberius. They stand, 
balancing terror against mutual shame. Even with those 
in our universities, who no longer repeat fully the re- 
quired Shibboleths, the explicitness of truth is rare. He 
who assents most, committing himself least to baseness, is 
reckoned wisest " (pp. 52, 53). Passing over the accu- 
sations of cowardice which the Essayist thinks it becom- 
ing his position to bring against his rationalistic friends, 
and remembering the illustration afforded of the necessary 
results of shrinking from " research and fair statement " 
in the case of the brothers Newman, one of whom 
"retreated to Eome," and the other, after lingering for 
a time amongst the Plymouth Brethren, was eventually 
landed in the extreme regions of scepticism, a form doubt- 
less of " equal evil," we would earnestly entreat him to 
consider whether he himself, and the leaders of this 
modern school of theology to which he is so firmly 
attached, desires to " retain the old Anglical foundations," 
or whether he is not seeking to introduce something 
„ modern and novel, and, therefore, untrue. " Some of the 
decisions provisionally given upon imperfect evidence" 
will, doubtless, require reconsideration and revision, but 
we may rest assured that every real discovery which the 
skill and wisdom of man has made, has tended, and ever 
will tend to show the perfect accord between Eevelation 
and Science. We shall have frequent opportunities of 

E 4 



8 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



proving this in our examination of other equally strange 
statements which have been put forth by the Essayists, 
being convinced that all research and all investigation 
carried out to its legitimate conclusion can only tend to 
show that — 

" Every science, power, and art 
Which tends to foster in the heart 

Knowledge of Nature's laws, 
Must, sanctified by grace divine, 
Precept on precept, line on line, 

Exalt the First Great Cause." 

§ 4. In support of his view of the propriety of 
" research and fair statement," in order to keep members 
of the Church of England satisfied with resting upon 
"the old Anglican foundations," Dr. Williams writes, 
" that there was a Bible before our Bible, and that some of 
our present books, as certainly Genesis and Joshua, and, 
perhaps, Job, Jonah, Daniel, are expanded from simpler 
elements, is indicated in the book before us {Bunseiis Gott 
in der Geschichte) rather than proved as it might be " (p. 62). 
It would be well if the Essayist would apply this just 
remark on the work he is reviewing to the many strong 
statements which he and his Co-Essayists have put forth 
with the usual dogmatism of the school to which they be- 
long, but which are often as devoid of proof as Bunsen's 
theory regarding the non-inspiration of Genesis and J oshua 
for certain, with the assumed possibility of other books of 
Scripture being so likewise. Dr. Williams cannot suppose 
that any one who has really made " Biblical Eesearches " 
into the genuineness and authenticity of the sacred writings, 
and with the spirit of a humble-minded believer in the ex- 
istence of God, and the fact of His having made a Eevela- 
tion of His will to man, will be satisfied with his criticism 
upon the hypothesis of his more daring and speculative 
brother. 

§ 5. As a specimen of his qualifications for the office 
he so confidently assumes in- defence of " the old Anglican 



THE SHILOH. 



foundations of research and fair statement," Dr. Williams 
continues his commendation of Bunsen by saying, " the 
famous Shiloh (Gen. xlix. 10) is taken in its local sense, 
as the sanctuary where the young Samuel was trained ; 
which, if doctrinal perversions did not interfere, hardly any 
one would doubt to be the true sense " (p. 62). Believing 
that this is one of the many prophecies in the Old Testa- 
ment, which may well be described as "directly Messianic," 
notwithstanding the effort of Dr. Williams, which we 
shall presently notice, to limit such to " two doubtful pas- 
sages in Zechariah and Isaiah," we offer the following 
proof that, so far from it being a " doctrinal perversion " 
of the Christian Church to apply it, as she has invariably 
done from the days of the Apostles, by pointing its fulfil- 
ment to our Saviour, it was interpreted by the Jews of the 
expected Messiah before Christ appeared in the world ; 
and it betrays a limited acquaintance with the subject on 
the part of the Essayist to assert, that no one ought to 
" doubt the true sense " of the prophecy to mean " the 
sanctuary where the young Samuel was trained." Let us 
hear the exact words of the dying Jacob, who was in- 
spired to utter this* prediction as an intimation to his 
descendants concerning future judgments and blessings. 
" The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law- 
giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come." The 
word " Shiloh " signifies the Sent-one, or Apostle, and was 
evidently indicative of Christ's Apostleship, as the sacred 
writer expressly styles Him, f O ' Airoa-ToXog (Heb. hi. 1). It 
was probably alluded to by Moses, when declining at first 
the mission which God ordered him to undertake at the 
Court of Pharaoh, " my Lord, send I pray Thee by the 
hand of Him whom Thou wilt send" i.e. the promised 
Shiloh (Exod. iv. 13) ; in which we have the true mean- 
ing of the word as it is rendered in the Vulgate, qui mitten- 
dus est, "who is about to be sent," So a Eabbinical 
comment on Deut. xxii. 7, says, " If you keep this precept 



10 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



you hasten the coming of the Messiah, who is called Sent" 
All the three Targums, the Talmud, and many Jewish 
writers 1 , both ancient and modern, agree in this, that, by 
the title " Shiloh,'' the Messiah is to be understood. 
E. Bechai expressly owns that 44 it is right to understand 
this verse of the Messiah, the last Eedeemer, which is 
meant when it saith, till Shiloh come, i.e. his son proceed- 
ing from his seed. And the reason why the word beno is 
not used in this prophecy, but Shiloh, is because he 
(Jacob) would emphatically express a son, who should be 
brought forth of his mother's womb, after the manner of 
all those that are born of a woman." The true interpre- 
tation of this prophecy is so convincing, that, in order to 
evade the argument, the Jews have invented a great many 
tales of the power which they are said to possess in some 
remote parts of the world. They have written a book, 
entitled " The Voice of Glad Tidings," with that object 
in view. Their forefathers, however, who lived at the 
time when the prophecy was being fulfilled, and when 
the kingdom did in reality depart from them, by Herod 
the Idumean forcibly seizing the crown with the assist- 
ance of the Romans, are said to have shaved their heads, 
put on sackcloth, and cried, 44 Woe to us, because the 
sceptre is departed from Judah, and a lawgiver from be- 
tween his feet." It remained for a German scholar, and an 
English presbyter of the nineteenth century, to discover that 
the ancient Jewish understanding of this famous prophecy 
was a 44 doctrinal perversion " of the Christian Church, 
and that so far from having any reference to the Saviour 
of the world, it should be understood of 44 the sanctuary 
where the young Samuel was trained," which no one 
ought to doubt is 44 the true sense " of Jacob's words ! 

1 Zohar in Gen. fol. 32, 4. Bereshit Babba, fol. 98, § 85. Jarchi 
and Baal Hatturim in loco. Abarbinel, Mashmiah Jeshuah, fol. 10, 1. 
11. Abraham Seba, Tzeror Hammor, fol. 36, 4. 



THE ANALOGY OF KELIGION. 



11 



§ 6. Dr. Williams, in his attempt to depreciate the gen- 
uineness and reality of Scripture prophecies, has thought 
it becoming to speak in the following manner of the 
author of the "Analogy of Eeligion," one of the pro- 
foundest theological works in the English language. 
" Even Butler foresaw the possibility that every prophecy 
in the Old Testament might have its elucidation in con- 
temporaneous history ; but literature was not his strong 
point, and he turned aside, endeavouring to limit it, from 
an unwelcome idea" (p. 65). It would have been well 
for the character of the Essayist if he had given some 
reasons, instead of his own inference respecting Bishop 
Butler's understanding of the prophecies, as after the 
specimens in the Essay of the author's qualifications, few 
will be disposed to pay much attention to his expressed 
opinion on such a subject. It would have been still 
better if he had avoided speaking of Bishop Butler in the 
contemptuous manner he has done, as it has only brought 
discredit upon himself, and exposed his own incapacity to 
handle the matter on which he writes. And it will be 
sufficient to our purpose if we adduce the testimony of 
one infinitely greater in intellectual power, as well as in 
theological worth than the Vice-Principal of Lampeter 
College, respecting the character of the traduced Bishop 
of Durham. " Butler," says Dr. Chalmers, "is in theo- 
logy what Bacon is in science. The reigning principle of 
the latter is, that it is not for man to theorise on the works 
of God ; and of the former, that it is not for man to theo- 
rize on the ways of God. Both deferred alike to the cer- 
tainty of experience, as being paramount to all the plausi- 
bilities of hypothesis ; and he who attentively studies the 
writings of these great men will find a marvellous con- 
currence of principle between a sound philosophy and a 
sound faith." 

§ 7. Dr. Williams remarks on the subject of prophecy 



12 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



generally, that " the declamatory assertions so easy in 
pulpits or on platforms, and aided sometimes by powers 
which produce silence rather than conviction, have not 
only kept alive, but magnified with uncritical exaggeration, 
whatever the fathers had dreamt or modern rhetoric could 
add, tending to make prophecy miraculous. Keith's edi- 
tion of Newton need not here be discussed " (p. 66). We 
agree with the Essayist in thinking that the subject of 
prophecy is better suited for the calm of the study than 
the excitement of the platform. We can overlook the 
contemptuous way in which he speaks of one of the most 
distinguished of living authors on the subject of fulfilled 
prophecy, as the expression, " Keith's edition of Newton," 
betrays either a perverted mind or reprehensible ignor- 
ance on the part of a reviewer, who dogmatises on a 
subject which he is evidently incompetent to judge. And 
we invite attention to the patent infidelity of the writer in 
the lamentable expression which he, as a clergyman, 
thinks it becoming to use, " tending to make prophecy 
miraculous." The very word " prophecy," as used alike in 
its conventional sense and according to its etymology, 
shows that it can be nothing but " miraculous ; " for what 
human being ever possessed in himself power to foretell 
things to come? If the axiom of Lord Bolingbroke be 
true, that the history of the past " is philosophy teaching 
us by example," with no less truth may it be said that 
that prophecy, which Bacon termed " a kind of histrio- 
graphy," is the history of the future recorded by the 
authority of God. It is the essence of scepticism, to which 
the rationalistic school of the present generation is so zea- 
lously allied, to deny the genuineness and the authenticity 
of the prophetic portions of the Bible, especially those of 
Daniel, to which we shall presently call attention. The 
believer in a Eevelation from God, however, is too well 
assured that in prophecy he has before him the thoughts 



THE FIFTY-THIKD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 13 

of an Omniscient Being regarding the future, which it is 
his duty and his privilege to study and not to dispute. 
And deep must be the guilt, as well as incalculable the 
loss, of those who, in place of owning their ignorance and 
of seeking humbly by prayer and faith to know the mind 
of God, question, dispute, deny, and cavil at every clearly 
fulfilled prophecy which is displeasing to their vanity, 
but which has been accepted in all ages by the concurrent 
testimony of the Christian Church. 

§ 8. Hence, Dr. Williams, after contending with de- 
plorable pertinacity against the authenticity and genuine- 
ness of certain portions of those books which bear the 
names amongst the prophets of Isaiah and Zechariah 
(p. 68), gives us a specimen of his rationalistic conclusions 
concerning the former, in respect to the interpretation of 
the famous 53rd Chapter, that " the weight of arguments 
(in the master's hand) is so great, that if any single person 
should be selected, they prove Jeremiah should be the one " 
(p. 7 3). Adding immediately, " nor are they a slight illus- 
tration of the historical sense of that famous chapter, which 
in the original is a history ;" and supporting his opinion in 
a foot note that " the tenses from verse 2 onward are rather 
historical than predictive ; and in verse 8, " for he ivas 
stricken" the Hebrew is VX% the stroke was upon 
them ; i. e. on the generation of the faithful, which was 
cut off, when the blood of the Prophets was shed on 
every side of Jerusalem." Although it is true that this 
strange interpretation of Isaiah 53rd, was anciently pro- 
pounded by one Jewish Eabbi, Saadiah Gaon, who 
selects Jeremiah, just as other Eabbies had variously 
selected Abraham, Moses, King Josiah, Zorobabel, or 
the people of Israel in general for the fulfilment of 
the prophecy, Dr. Williams ought in common fairness 
to have stated that the Jewish Targum \ to which he 

1 Dr. Williams declares that Bishop Pearson's " citations from 
Jonathan and from Jarchi are most unfair." (Foot note, p. 72.) Did he 



14 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



alludes in a foot note, distinctly refers it to the Mes 
siah ; " Behold, my servant the Messiah shall prosper ; " 
and that the mere fact of its being compiled "in the 
fourth century of our era," or the Jewish compiler speaking 
of the Messiah 44 in the character of a Judaic deliverer," 
in place of 44 a Saviour," is only what we should have 
expected, and sufficiently contradicts his strange theory of 
the Spirit of God intending it for the Prophet Jeremiah. 
The Essayist, with lamentable taste, sneers at Bishop 
Pearson's understanding of the way in which the Eabbies 
dealt with this prophecy, yet the following extracts will 
prove that the Bishop was right. One of them says that 
44 the section, which begins with these words, He shall be 
exalted and extolled, and be very high, is concerning the 
Messiah." 1 Another on the same passage, that 44 Messiah 
is exalted above Abraham, extolled above Moses, and 
made higher than the ministering angels." 2 A third 
remarks, 44 The kingdom of Israel shall be exalted in the 
days of the Messiah, as it is written, He shall be exalted 
and extolled." 3 The fact of the Jews omitting to read 
this prophecy in their public services, and the Pabbinical 4 
denunciations against its being read in private, are suffi- 
cient to convince all persons, save those whose minds are 
warped by a morbid and unhealthy scepticism, that the 
interpretation of the Catholic Church since the day of 



forget the " beam in his own eye " ? or did he trust to Porson's eulogy 
upon that great theologian, that " he would have been a first-rate critic 
in Greek, equal even to Bentley, if he had not muddled his brains 
with divinity ? " — Baker's Lit. Aneccl. vol. ii. p. 24. 

1 Baal Hatturim in Lev. xvi. 14. 

2 Tanchuma apud Yalkut in loco. 

3 Pesikta apud Kettoreth Hassammim in Targum in Numb, 
fol. 27, 2. 

4 " It has lately been publicly declared by a Jew who professed and 
preached Christianity, that the Eabbies forbid the people to read this 
chapter with dreadful denunciations." — Scott's Commentary in loc. 



THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 



15 



Pentecost is indeed the true one. Further, the criticism 
of the Essayist on ver. 8 of the prophecy, when it comes to 
be analysed, is very far from supporting his opinion of 
applying it either to Jeremiah in particular, or to the 
nation in general. We admit the literal rendering of the 
present Massorete text to be as he says, " the stroke was 
upon them;" but we deny the correctness of the inference 
which he deduces therefrom. We have satisfactory 
evidence that such is not the true reading, which, by the 
omission of the letter E) 1 , would read, as our translators 
in the margin, following the Syriac and Vulgate versions, 
have done " the stroke was upon Him ; " or else by the 
introduction of the letter J-) at the end of the sentence, we 
should accept the reading of the LXX, a-nrl rCov avofxlcov 
rod Xaou pou rj%$r) e\g Sdvarov, " for the iniquity of my 
people was he smitten to death," which is supported by 
the Arabic and Coptic versions, and one Syriac MS., and 
which for the following reason we believe to be correct. 
Origen relates 2 that once, when in controversy with some 
learned Jews, having quoted at large the 53rd Chapter of 
Isaiah, concerning the Messiah, one of them replied then 
(as the rationalists contend now) that " the words did not 
mean one man, but one people, the Jews, who were 
smitten of God and dispersed among the Gentiles for the 
purpose of their conversion ; " and that he (Origen) con- 
founded them most by quoting the passage " smitten to 
death," according to the LXX, which could not apply to 



1 This is one of the most important of the 800,000 various read- 
ings which, according to Professor Moses Stuart, occur as to the 
Hebrew consonants in the different MSS. which have been examined. 
It is satisfactory, however, to know that the whole of them, en masse, 
do not materially affect any important precept, or even history, the 
generality of them being nothing more than a different way of spelling 
certain words, as, in the English language, honour or honor. 

2 Contra Celsum, lib. i. p. 370, ed. 1733. 



16 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



the nation at large. Considering that Origen had labori- 
ously compared the version of the LXX with the Hebrew 
text, and has recorded the necessity of arguing when in 
controversy with the Jews from such passages only where 
the texts of both agree, it is fair to conclude, both from 
Origen's argument and the silence of his Jewish adver- 
saries, that the Hebrew text in those days read TiIdS " to 
death," agreeable to the version of the LXX. Hence, we 
think that it would have been better for the Essayist if 
his " Biblical Eesearches " had extended somewhat further 
than the mere bringing forward of a questionable reading 
of the Massorete text, in order to contradict what the 
Christian Church has so long accepted as " the sure word 
of prophecy." It is not necessary to show at any length 
that this famous prophecy can refer to none other save 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as every faithful 
Christian must be so fully persuaded of the same ; and it 
ought to be sufficient to convince every professed minister, 
even though he be a most unreasonable rationalist, of his 
great error in the application of the prediction, that our 
Lord applied it to Himself the night before the crucifixion, 
as St. Luke records his words : " I say unto you, that 
this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And 
he was reckoned among the transgressors ; " 1 and that, 
when the Spirit of God directed the steps of the Evangelist 
Philip to the spot where the Ethiopian eunuch was reading 
from the prophecy of Isaiah, " He was led as a sheep to 
the slaughter ; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, 
so opened he not his mouth : In his humiliation his judg- 
ment was taken away : and who shall declare his genera- 
tion, for his life is taken from the earth," the same Spirit 
inspired him to reply to the natural question, " I pray 
thee, of whom speaketh the Prophet this ? " — none other 



St. Luke, xxii. 37. 



PSALM XXXIV. 20. 



17 



than the name of Jesus. " Then Philip opened his mouth, 
and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him 
Jesus." 1 ISTo one who allows the writings of the New 
Testament to be inspired by God, can hesitate in deciding 
to whom the term which the Essayist angrily uses, " such 
traditional distortion of prophecy" (p. 74), most appro- 
priately belongs, when investigating either spiritually or 
critically the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. 

§ 9. We invite attention to other " distortions of pro- 
phecy," which are so recklessly scattered throughout this 
review of " Bunsen's Biblical Eesearches. " E. g. Dr. Williams 
says, " He may read in Psalm xxxiv. that 4 Not a bone of 
the righteous shall be broken,' but he must feel a diffi- 
culty in detaching this from the context, so as to make it 
a prophecy of the crucifixion " (p. 68). The Essayist, or 
Baron Bunsen, for it is not quite clear from the construc- 
tion of the sentence which is in fault, ought to quote with 
scrupulous nicety when endeavouring to set aside any 
portion of God's prophetic truth ; for the words at ver. 
20 read : 44 He keepeth all his bones : not one of them is 
broken ; " and the same Spirit which 44 moved " David to 
foretell it, equally 44 moved " (though of course this Dr. 
Williams must consistently deny 2 ) St. John to apply 
it in his account of the crucifixion, 44 These things were 
done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of 
Him shall not be broken." 3 Dr. Williams's criticism is 
equally at fault in another of the Psalms. He continues, 
44 If he accepts mere versions of Psalm xxii. 17, he may 
wonder 4 piercing the hands and the feet ' can fit into the 



1 Acts, viii. 27—35. 

2 One of the Essayists writes, " Some critics think St. John's Gospel 
was not of a date anterior to the year 140, and that it presupposes 
opinions of a Yalentinian character, or even Montanist, which would 
make it later still.' 1 '' — Essays and Reviews, p. 161, note. 

3 St. John, xix. 36. 

C 



18 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



whole passage ; but if lie prefers the most ancient Hebrew 
reading ', lie finds, instead of 6 piercing,' the comparison 
' hke a Hon,' and this corresponds sufficiently with the 
4 dogs ' of the first clause, though a morally certain 
emendation would make the parallel more perfect by 
reading the word 4 Hons ' in both clauses " (p. 69). We 
think Dr. Williams is mistaken, and that our own " mere 
version," by its rendering of the disputed clause, " they 
pierced my hands and my feet," has retained the ancient 
and true reading. The whole difference lies, as is well 
known, between the Hebrew letters * and % which, 
being so much alike, might easily be mistaken for each 
other ; the former making the sentence " like a lion" the 
latter, " they pierced." In support of each reading there 
are various MSS. as well as eminent critics. The LXX., 
Syriac, iEthiopic, Arabic, and Vulgate, read it they 
pierced. The Chaldee and the Targum combine both by 
reading it, biting as a lion my hands and my feet. The 
Complutensian Polyglott has they pierced ; but the Poly- 
glotts of London, Paris, and Antwerp have like a lion in 
the text, and they pierced in the margin. In the small 
Masorah on this text, it is observed by the Jewish writer 
that the word is used twice, as it is here pointed, but in 
two different senses. This is one place ; and Isaiah, 
xxxviii. 13, where the sense requires it should be read as 
a lion, is the other. Therefore, according to the author 
of that note, it should not be understood in this place of 
a lion. The larger Masorah, on Numbers xxiv. 9, observes 
the word is to be found in two places, in that and in 
Psalm xxii. 16, and adds to the latter, it is written, they 
pierced. Ben Chayim 1 confirms this reading, and says 
he found it so written in some correct copies, and in the 
margin, as a lion. All this, together with the knowledge 



1 In Maarcath tf, fol. 10, 2, ad Calc. Buxtorf. Bibl. 



DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 



19 



that the Jews themselves sometimes apply this passage 
from the Psalms to their Messiah, together with the fact 
that the undisputed reading of the LXX., which in reality 
is the safest guide when there is any doubt about the 
Hebrew, being wpu^av, they pierced, is sufficient to decide 
the question against the perverted conclusion of the 
Essayist. Whether he believes in the fact of our Lord's 
hands and feet having been pierced at the time of the 
crucifixion simply because the Evangelists 1 have stated 
it, we cannot say ; but we have independent evidence by 
both Jewish and Heathen writers, of the Crucifixion, 
where of necessity any one who suffered death in that 
form, must have had his hands and feet pierced. 

Nor is Dr. Williams less at fault in his system of 
criticism upon the New Testament than we believe it to 
be upon the Old, as witness his treatment of the Book of 
Eevelation. He observes that " the Apocalypse, if taken 
as a series of poetical visions, which represent the out- 
pouring of the vials of wrath upon the city where the 
Lord was slain, ceases to be a riddle. Its horizon answers 
to that of Jerusalem, already threatened by the legions of 
Vespasian " (p. 84). As we gather from this that the 
Essayist advocates the Neronic date of the Apocalypse, 
we can only express our surprise at the confidence of any 
one claiming to be a critic, who can support in the pre- 
sent day so indefensible a theory. The attempts to set 
aside the force of Irenasus' testimony that " the Apoca- 
lypse was seen not very long ago, but almost in our age, 
towards the end of the reign of Domitian" 2 have been so 
v well exposed by the author of Horse Apocalypticse, that 

1 St. John applies the continuation of the disputed passage in Psalm 
xxii. 18, to the crucifixion, " That the Scripture might be fulfilled, 
which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture 
did they cast lots" (xix. 24). 

2 Irenseus contra Haer. v. xxx. 3. 

c 2 



20 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



we need only refer any one wishing to investigate the 
subject to that valuable work, " in order to convince the 
intelligent and candid reader of their absurdity and ex- 
travagance." 1 The only internal evidence for such a 
theory rests upon the mention of the Temple of the 
Apocalypse, from which it is hastily concluded that as 
the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed shortly after the 
termination of Nero's reign, therefore it must have been 
written before his death. But it might as well be argued 
that the nine concluding chapters of Ezekiel's prophecy, 
which contain a full description of some magnificent 
temple, could not have been written " in the 25th year of 
our Captivity," according to the prophet's statement 2 , 
because the Temple of Jerusalem had been destroyed a 
few years before by Nebuchadnezzar's captain of the 
guard ; whereas both Ezekiel and St. J ohn undoubtedly 
refer to a temple of another sort and another age. Again, 
there can be no question that the locality around which 
the " poetical visions " of the Apocalypse may be said to 
centre, is not Jerusalem, but Eome. For to refer to St. 
John's definition of the woman as " that great city, which 
reigneth over the kings of the earth," 3 to the former, 
instead of the latter, is as unwarrantable a speculation as 
that other conclusion in the opposite extreme, which 
refers it to a future Babylon on the river Euphrates. 4 It 

1 Hor. Apoc. Preliminary Essay on the Genuineness of the Date of 
the Apocalypse of St. John, chap. ii. By Rev. E. B. Elliott. 

2 Ezekiel, xl. 1. 

3 Revelation, xvii. 18. 

4 Mr. Newton, a writer amongst the "Plymouth Brethren," contends 
that the " seven -hilled " city, called " Babylon the Great" in the 17th 
and 18th chapters of Revelation, so far from referring to Rome, which 
the Spirit of God clearly points to as " that great city reigning over 
the kings of the earth " when St. John lived, must mean Babylon 
on the Euphrates, where Nebuchadnezzar dwelt. And the little diffi- 
culty of the " seven mountains " he gets over by supposing that, since 



MESSIANIC PROPHECIES. 



21 



is true there is allusion in the Apocalypse to " the city 
where the Lord was slain." But a very little criticism 
enables us to decide that the reference in this instance, as 
in the previous one, is to Eome, and not to Jerusalem. 
The passage, on which we conclude the Essayist mainly 
rests, reads, " their dead bodies shall lie in the street 
(ttj£ 7rAars/a£) of the great city, which spiritually is called 
Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." 1 
We know our Lord was crucified at Jerusalem, which is 
here called the street or broadway of that great city, 
whose empire at that time extended from Britain to the 
Euphrates ; but the term, " the great city," can refer to 
nothing but Eome itself. And this is all that need be said 
on the subject. 

§ 10. Dr. Williams makes a deeper plunge in the 
whirlpool of rationalistic doubts by observing, " When so 
vast an induction on the destructive side has been gone 
through, it avails little that some passages may be doubt* 
ful, one, perhaps, inZechariah, and one in Isaiah, capable 
of being made directly Messianic, and a chapter possibly 
in Deuteronomy foreshadowing the final fall of Jerusalem. 
Even these few cases, the remnant of so much confident 
rhetoric^ tend to melt, if they are not already melted, in 
the crucible of searching inquiry" (pp. 69, 70). If by 
this statement the Essayist means to assert that there are 
only two passages in the Old Testament which point to 
Christ as the foretold Messiah, and that even these must 
be given up after having passed through the critical alem- 



" seven is used in Scripture as the number of completeness," it may 
refer to the perfection of wickedness and " governmental influence," 
which will be found in the future Babylon ; or, if that interpretation 
does not please, it may possibly refer to the hanging gardens in the old 
Babylon! — -Babylon: its Future History. By B. W. Newton, pp. 
85—88. 

1 Rev. xi. 8, 

c a 



22 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



bic of his fellow-rationalists, we can only recommend him 
to enter the nearest village school, and question the best 
instructed scholar therein, and if he has sufficient humi- 
lity he will speedily discover what little progress his 
" Biblical Researches " have yet made. We have not time 
to answer this marvellous specimen of rationalistic unbe- 
lief. Nor is it needed, as any one moderately taught in 
that Book of books, wherein God has condescended to 
reveal His history of the past, and His will respecting the 
future, to fallen man, will have presented to his mind at 
once numberless passages which contradict and confute 
the patent infidelity of this daring announcement. It will 
be sufficient if we adduce the testimony of the Jewish 
Babbies 1 subsequent to the time of our Lord's ministry 
on earth, who, although the, veil is still on their hearts 
when reading the law of Moses, appear to have had a 
better understanding of the " Messianic " nature of Christ, 
as predicted in the Old Testament, than one English. Bres- 
byter has in the present day. 44 In the Rabbinical version 
of the History of Jesus," says Mr. Myers, himself a con- 
verted Jew, and now a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
land, 44 it is confessed that He was born at Bethlehem, of 
the tribe of Judah, of royal descent — that he was very 
learned — that He asserted He was born of a pure virgin 
— that He said He was the Son of God, and applied to 
Himself the prophecy of Isaiah vii. 14, 4 Behold a virgin 
shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his 



1 Buxtorf, in his Lex. Talm., gives above sixty passages where the 
Chaldee paraphrasts mention the Messiah ; and though many of such 
interpretations would not be owned by Christian commentators, there 
are others of which there can be no doubt. They could understand 
Gen. i. 2, to be " directly Messianic " before " the crucible " of the 
rationalistic school was known. " The Spirit of God," as Zohar, 
Bereshith Rabba, and divers others declare, "is the Spirit of 
Messias." 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 



23 



name Immanuel,'— that He declared that He created the 
heaven and the earth - — that many Jews worshipped 
Him as the Son of God — that He entered Jerusalem 
upon an ass — that the whole city came out to meet Him 
— that He applied to himself, Zech. ix. 9 — that He said 
He would sit at the right hand of Grod — that He was 
betrayed by Judas — that He was scourged, and crowned 
with thorns — that they gave Him vinegar to drink — 
that He applied to Hhnself Psalm lxix. 21, and Psalm 
xxii. 1 — that He said His blood should be an atonement 
for all mankind — - that He said Isaiah, liii. 5, was fulfilled 
in Him — that He was put to death on the evening of the 
Passover — that He was buried before the Sabbath set in 
. — that His followers increased after His death more and 
more — that they soon numbered tens of thousands — • 
that He had twelve disciples who travelled into twelve 
kingdoms — that the Jews went after them ; and that 
some of them were men of great learning and probity, 
and confirmed the doctrines of Jesus." 1 

§11. Speaking of the Prophet Daniel, Dr. Williams 
approves of Baron Bunsen's view, by his observation that 
" in distinguishing the man Daniel from our book of 
Daniel, and bringing the latter as low as the reign of 
Epiphanes, our author only follows the admitted necessi- 
ties of the case. Not only Macedonian words, such as 

symphonia and psanterion and not only the 

minute description of Antiochus' reign, but the stoppage 
of such description at the precise date, 169 B.C., remove all 
philological and critical doubt as to the age of the book. 
But what seems peculiar to Bunsen, is the interpretation 
of the four empires' symbols with reference to the original 
Daniel's abode in Nineveh. The original place of the 
book amongst the later Hagiographa of the J ewish canon 



1 See " The Jew," by A. M. Myers, pp. 393, 4. 
c 4 



24 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



confirms this view of its origin (viz., at the time of the 
struggle against Antiochus) ; and if some obscurity rests 
upon details, the general conclusion, that the book con- 
tains no predictions, except by analogy and type, can 
hardly he gainsaid" (pp. 76, 77). Let us examine sepa- 
rately these marvellous statements. The question to be 
discussed is simply this. Was the Book of Daniel written 
by an inspired man living at Babylon during the 6th cen- 
tury before the Christian era, or by a forger of four 
centuries later, who usurped Ms name, and who recorded 
events after they had taken place ? The Jews and the 
Christian Church have accepted the former, Baron Buns en 
and Dr. Williams, with the rationalistic school generally, 
having disinterred the objections of an infidel (Porphyry, 
the Syrian of Bashan) of the third century of our era, who 
asserted that the book was a forgery of the time of the Mac- 
cabees, have adopted the latter. Such was also the view of 
the late Dr. Arnold, whose opinion is thus openly expressed : 
" I have long thought that the greater part of the Book of 
Daniel is most certainly a very late work, of the time of 
the Maccabees; and the pretended prophecy about the 
Kings of Grrecia and Persia, and of the jSorth and South, is 
mere history, like the poetical prophecies in Virgil and else- 
where." 1 It would be well if those who are apt to have 
their minds swayed by the character and estimable quali- 
ties of such men as Bunsen and Arnold 2 , instead of rea- 



1 Life of Arnold, vol. ii. p. 195, 5th ed. 

2 The testimony of one of these eminent men regarding the other 
may be fitly introduced here as bearing upon the subject. " I could 
not," says Arnold, " express my sense of what Bunsen is without 
seeming to be exaggerating : but I think if you could hear and see 
him, even for one half hour, you would understand my feelings to- 
wards him. He is a man in whom God's graces and gifts are more 
united than in any person whom I ever saw. I have seen men as 
holy, as amiable, as able; but I never knew one who was all one in 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 



25 



soiling as they unconsciously do, " If such learned persons 
did not own the authenticity of Daniel, they must have 
had good grounds for rejecting it," were to consider what 
those grounds are really worth. When an opinion is 
broadly stated without any reason being assigned, it car- 
ries far greater weight with the unthinking class than if 
reasons were given : in the latter case, the reasons for the 
opinion are judged ; in the former, the opinion rests on 
some ground of unknown and undefined importance. 
Be it ours to endeavour to show as briefly as the exten- 
sive nature of the subject will allow, a few, out of many, 
reasons why we must contend for the genuineness and 
authenticity of the Book of Daniel. 

(a.) Darnel claims to be its author no less than nine 
times, as the following texts declare, chap. vii. 1, 2, 28, 
and viii. 1, 15, 27, and ix. 2, and x. 2, and xii. 5. In any 
other writing this would be deemed sufficient proof con- 
jointly with the mode of its having come down to us. 
It is a singular fact, that the abridged history of Eome 
by Yelleius Paterculus has been transmitted to the time 
when printing was discovered by means of a single MS., 
and is alluded to by but one ancient author, viz., Priscian, 
a grammarian of the 6th century. It has been the same 
with the more important work of Tacitus, which was like- 
wise preserved in a single MS., discovered in a monastery 
of Westphalia. It is needless to remark that the genuine- 
ness and authenticity of these two works are universally 
admitted, notwithstanding the scantiness of the evidence 
s in their behalf. So in the last century, when Muratori 
discovered in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, a Latin 
fragment on the canon of the New Testament, it was at 



so extraordinary a degree, and combined with a knowledge of things 
new and old, sacred and profane, so accurate, so profound, that I never 
knew it equalled or approached by any man." — Ibid. vol. ii. p. 140. 



26 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



once received as a genuine work of the second century, as 
the nature of the case precluded imposture, and the in- 
ternal evidence showed that the author of it lived about 
A. d. 140. 

(h.) Ezekiel, a contemporary historian, independent of 
being an inspired Prophet, mentions Daniel three times, 
chap. xiv. 14 and 20, and chap, xxviii. 3, apparently as 
if he was a well-known person of that age, and as we find 
no other Daniel recorded in earlier ages, we must con- 
clude that Ezekiel must refer to the prime minister of 
Darius the Mede, who succeeded Belshazzar on the throne 
of Babylon. 

(c.) The First Book of Maccabees (originally written in 
Hebrew according to Origen and Jerome 1 ) affords satis- 
factory evidence that the Prophecy of Daniel was, in the 
Maccabean age itself, received and used as being what it 
professed, — an authoritative revelation given to the Pro- 
phet at Babylon. For not only does the writer evidently 
quote from Daniel when he speaks of the servants of An- 
tiochus Epiphanes having " set up the abomination of 
desolation upon the altar " (i. 54), but there are frequent 
allusions 2 to the fact that the canon of the Old Testament 
was closed, and that the Jews had no prophet amongst 
them, which they allowed Daniel to be. This we know 
from the testimony of Josephus, who speaks of him as 
" one of the greatest of the prophets — for the several 
books that he wrote and left behind him are still read by 
us till this time ; and from them we believe that Daniel 
conversed with God ; for he did not only prophesy of 
future events as the other prophets did, but he also deter- 
mined the time of their accomplishment." 3 If the modern 

1 Origen apud Euseb. H. E. vi. xxv., and Jerome Prologus 
Galeatus. 

2 Mace. iv. 46 ; ix. 27 ; xiv. 41. 

3 Jos. Antiq. x. xi. 7. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 



,27 



Jews have endeavoured to lessen the value of Daniels 
testimony by placing him in the D^IHD or Hagiographa, 
though we do not know at what time this was done, or 
upon what principle the collection of sacred writings was 
arranged, it may be owing partly to its being an historical 
work as well as prophetic, partly to its having been writ- 
ten at Babylon, and partly to the clear but unwelcome 
testimony it bears to their treatment of the Messiah as 
fulfilled in the person of our Saviour. The Jews have a 
story concerning Jonathan ben Uzziel, when about to 
commence a paraphrase on the Hagiographa, in continua- 
tion of his previous one on the Prophets, having been for- 
bidden by the Bath-Kol, or Voice from Heaven, because 
that in it was contained " the end of the Messiah and the 
exact time of his coming." 1 This was considered so clear 
by them, that one of their Eabbies, who lived in the cen- 
tury preceding the Christian era, asserted that " the time 
of the promised Messiah, as foretold by Daniel, could not 
be deferred longer than fifty years" 2 which will account 
for what St. Luke records respecting Simeon at the ex- 
piration of that period, that " the same man was just and 
devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel : and the 
Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto 
him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death 
before he had seen the Lord's Christ." 3 Aben Ezra and 
E. Jacchiades express the same opinion as Josephus does, 
respecting the value of Daniel as a prophet ; and Maimo- 
nicles 4 , though, he says, the Book of Daniel by the general 



1 T. Bab. Megillah, fol. 3, 1. 

2 E. Nehumiah apud Grotium, de Ver. Eelig. Christ., 1. v. § 14. 

3 St. Luke, ii. 25, 26. 

4 More Nevocliim, pt. ii. c. 45. The Hagiographa commence with 
the Psalms and terminate with the Chronicles. The Book of Daniel 
is placed between Esther and Ezra. That the Jews of our Lord's 
time admitted the authority of the book, we know from the fact that 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



consent of the Jews is placed amongst the Hagiographa, 
he owns that Daniel and the other writers of those sacred 
books, as David and Solomon, may be called prophets in 
general. 

(d.) Had the Book of Daniel been composed by a for- 
ger of the Maccabean age, it must have been written be- 
tween the period of Judas Maccabeus purging the Temple 
(when the Feast of Dedication, which our Lord subse- 
quently observed, was appointed), B. c. 165, and the death 
of his successor, John Hyrcanus, B. c. 107, and must have 
come into general use within a few years of that last 
event. Now the Jews at the commencement of the Chris- 
tian era must have known whether Daniel belonged to the 
Maccabean period or not ; for that age was not so far 
removed from the time of our Lord, as to be sufficient to 
produce uncertainty, in a matter of such public importance 
and notoriety as the introduction and reception of a book 
of Holy Scripture. Melanchthon thus states the chrono- 
logical connexion of the two periods : — " Simeon, who 
embraced Christ as an infant, saw, when a young man, 
the elders who had seen Judas Maccabeus." 1 Hence if 
the Book of Daniel had been a forgery of that age it must 
have been well-known as a fact at the time of our Lord's 
birth. 

(e.) Every believer in the New Testament must neces- 
sarily deny the Book of Daniel to be a forgery of the 
Maccabean age, not only because the Scriptures 2 are 

when Christ referred the expression in Daniel vii. 13, " the Son of 
Man," to Himself, the Sanhedrim charged Him, not with quoting an 
apocryphal work, but with blasphemy, as appropriating to Himself the 
title which they would only allow to the Messiah, and on that ground 
they condemned the Innocent, saying, " He is guilty of death." 
St. Matt. xxiv. 30, xxvi. 63—6. 

1 Quoted in Havernick Uber Daniel, p. 390. 

2 E.g. St. Matt.xxii. 29; xxvi. 54. St. John, v. 39; x. 35. Eom. 
iii. 2 ; xv. 4. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 



29 



appealed to so frequently as a collection of writings ac- 
knowledged by the Jews to have been inspired by God, 
and divided, according to J osephus 1 , the contemporary of 
the Apostles, into twenty-two books, of which Daniel 
formed one ; but our Lord expressly bore testimony to 
the genuineness, the authenticity, and the inspiration of 
Daniel by saying, " When ye, therefore, shall see the 
abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, 
stand in the holy place (whoso readeth let him under- 
stand)." 2 What can be a stronger proof of the value of 
Daniel than this reference ? Christ mingles his own pre- 
dictions with a citation from this book, which shows that 
He did not understand Daniel as the historian of the past, 
but the Prophet of the future in the coming Eoman deso- 
lation. This is authority to us of the genuineness and au- 
thenticity, even though denied by German scholars and 
English clergymen, without a shadow of proof for their 
untenable opinions, and on this ground alone, we may 
cast aside every objection in which captious critics may 
indulge, as of no weight when compared with the posi- 
tive declaration of the Son of God. 

(/.) The objection of Dr. Williams to the genuineness of 
Daniel, on the ground of "Macedonian words, such as sym- 
phonia and psanterion" translated " dulcimer " and " psal- 
tery," is rather strange. The conclusion which we should 
draw on finding these words, would naturally be that 
such musical instruments were then known at Babylon 
as had been derived from the Greeks, and still retained 
their Greek names, just as we retain the well-known Eng- 
* lish word flute, derived from the German flote. That 
the musical instruments mentioned by Daniel, iii. 5, as in 



1 Contra Apion, lib. 1, § 8. 

2 St. Matt. xxiv. 15. "The abomination of desolation " is referred 
to by Daniel three times ; ix. 27 ; xi. 31 ; and xii. 11. 



30 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



use at Babylon, had been known long before his time both 
in Egypt and Greece, we have inferential proof. E. g. 
Sir Gardner Wilkinson discovered a painting at Thebes, 
of an instrument very like the recently invented concer- 
tina , the attitudes of the players resembling those of the 
well-known Ethiopian serenaders. In a tomb at the same 
city a psaltery or harp was found, now removed to Paris, 
with twenty chords of catgut so well preserved that they 
still retained their sound after having been buried since 
the century previous to that when David's harp sounded 
aloud the praises of God on Mount Zion. Terpander 
is considered by the Greeks to have invented the flute, 
about 150 years before Daniel was a captive in Babylon ; 
and Pythagoras, his distinguished contemporary, is said to 
have been an excellent performer, maintaining that music 
greatly conduced to health, and that to direct the morals 
and soften the lives of men by means of music was most 
beneficial. 1 

(g.) "The texture of the Chaldaic" is another of the 
Essayist's objections to the authenticity of Daniel, but not 
of much more force than a somewhat similar objection 
.which has elsewhere been brought against that same book, 
in consequence of its having been partly written in Chal- 
dee and part in Hebrew, but the objector forgets that the 
same thing is found in the Book of Ezra, and as such tells 
rather in favour of Daniel than the contrary. Had the 
Hebrew of Daniel been such as is found in the Prophecy 
of Isaiah, doubtless an objection would have been raised 
to it from the purity of the language, being such as a Jew 
in Babylon could not be expected to use, so easy is it for 
critics to endeavour to set aside the power of the Word 
of God by seeking to bring down truth inspired by the 
Infinite to the level of their own limited reason. 



1 Plutarch de Musica. Jamblichus de Vit. Pythag. 



THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 



31 



(A.) Dr. Williams apparently dissents from his friend's 
view of one portion of the Book of Daniel, remarking, 
" What seems peculiar to Baron Bunsen is the interpreta- 
tion of the four empires' symbols with reference to the 
original Daniel's abode in Nineveh." Considering that 
the Assyrian empire was finally overthrown, and Nineveh 
destroyed (b. c. 625) nearly a century before Daniel wrote 
the prophecy " of the Four Empires," in the first year of 
Belshazzar's short reign, which terminated B.C. 538 — that 
there is not a shadow of proof to make us suppose that 
Daniel ever abode in Nineveh, even if it was still standing 
— that in the image-vision, which Nebuchadnezzar saw 
and Daniel interpreted, the same " four empires" are des- 
cribed under the symbols of different metals, " the God 
of Heaven " inspired Daniel to announce the Babylonian 
empire as the first, by his speech to the King, " Thou art 
this head of gold," when Gentile dominion had begun to 
be exercised over the people of Israel, and that the fourth 
is no less clearly marked out in Scripture as that of the 
Caesars, which held sway in Judea when Christ commenced 
His ministry, and of which the Pharisees stood in such 
awe when they uttered unconsciously the prediction, " the 
Romans shall come and take away both our place and 
nation," 1 and to which our Lord referred when He foretold 
that " Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles 
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" 2 — consider- 
ing all these things and many other things in Scripture 
confirmatory of the same, we agree with the Essayist in 
thinking that Baron Bunsen's hermeneutical system of 
x interpreting the Assyrian Empire as the first, and the 
Grecian, during " the sway of Alexander " the fourth, is 
very "peculiar " indeed, and completely disqualifies the 



i St. John, xi. 48. 



2 St. Luke, xxi. 24. 



32 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



learned German from being a safe guide to the under- 
standing of prophecy. 1 

(i.) Dr. Williams sums up his own opinion respecting 
Daniel with these words : " The general conclusion that the 
booh contains no predictions, except by analogy and type, 
can hardly be gainsaid " (p. 76) ; having previously 
written, " two results are clear beyond fair doubt, that 
the period of the seventy weeks ended in the reign of 
Antiochus Epiphanes, and that those portions of the book 
supposed to be specially predictive, are a history of past 
occurrences up to that reign" (p. 69). Probably in the 
whole range of the Biblical literature of this country, 
there never were so many misstatements comprised in so 
short a space as the above, and which recent discoveries 
in science (we refer to the reading of the cuneiform cha- 
racter by our distinguished countrymen, Sir H. Kawlinson 
and Dr. Hincks) enable us so easily to disprove. When 
Nebuchadnezzar, in the height of his glory, boasted of 
the magnificence of his world-renowned capital, " Is not 
this great Babylon that I have built for the house of my 
kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour 
of my majesty," Daniel records the prediction that in con- 



1 It is somewhat singular that another school of prophetic interpre- 
ters, of which the most prominent are the Jesuit Lacunza, under the 
nom de guerre of Ben Ezra, and Drs. Maitland and Todd, have attempted 
to set aside the ancient Catholic interpretation of "the four empires" 
of the prophecy of Daniel by an equally untenable theory, making the 
Babylonian and Persian united as the first, and the fourth an empire 
still future, on the ground the Persians did not subvert the empire of 
the Chaldeans at the time when Belshazzar was slain, but only changed 
the dynasty. Dr. Maitland attempts to support this theory by sup- 
posing a parallel in William of Orange having subverted the throne of 
his father-in law, James II. He might as well have argued that 
Queen Victoria is the Great Mogul, and that Hindostan still remains 
the same empire, as there has been nothing more than a change of 
dynasty. 



Nebuchadnezzar's madness. 



33 



sequence of this boast, a voice from heaven forewarned 
the king that he should be driven from men — that his 
dwelling should be with the beasts of the field — and 
seven times should pass over him, until he acknowledged 
" that the most High ruled in the kingdom of men, and 
gave it to whomsoever He willed." 1 Science has recently 
brought to light several things confirmatory of this re- 
markable prediction. Had Daniel, a resident in Babylon 
at the time, made the same statement which Berosus the 
Chaldean historian made nearly three hundred years 
later, that Nebuchadnezzar built his palace " for the 
honour of his majesty" in the incredibly short space " of 
fifteen days" it would have been doubtless alleged by 
German critics and English Essayists against the value of 
the prophet's testimony, though we do not recollect ever 
hearing of such an obj ection against Berosus, — but then 
he lived three centuries after the events he professes to 
record, and did not claim to be an inspired man. 

A tablet at the India House in London, whose cuneiform 
inscription has been recently deciphered, affords a sin- 
gular confirmation of this most unlikely statement. A 
portion of it reads thus : — " Nebuchadnezzar King of 
Babylon — I erected its walls, I finished it completely 
in fifteen days — its roofs I covered it." Similarly does 
another cuneiform inscription confirm the truth of the 
prediction respecting Nebuchadnezzar's madness. The 
Standard Inscription, according to Sir H. Eawlinson, 
reads as follows : " Four years — the seat of my kingdom 
in the city — which — did not rejoice my heart. In all 
my dominions I did not build a high place of power ; 
the precious treasures of my kingdom I did not lay up. 
In Babylon, buildings for myself and for the honour of 
my kingdom I did not lay out." In the whole range of 



1 Daniel, iv. 30—32. 
D 



34 



REVELATION AIN'D SCIENCE. 



history there is probably no similar instance of a king 
recording so publicly his own inaction, which the believer 
in revelation is alone enabled to explain. Further, in the 
period of four years mentioned by Nebuchadnezzar, we 
receive the true explanation of the seven times recorded in 
Daniel, which has been a subject of prolific controversy 
amongst prophetic students. Theodoret informs us that 
the Persians used to distinguish their years into two 
seasons, winter and summer, and which was doubtless a 
similar custom with their neighbours at Babylon. Hence 
the seven times of Daniel must be understood as a period 
of three and a half solar years (a well-known period in 
Scripture), which will agree with the four (current) years 
mentioned in the inscription above. 

We have another instance of the harmony between 
Eevelation and Science in the prediction of Daniel re- 
specting the overthrow of Belshazzar's kingdom, which 
was to be given to the Medes and Persians. It is written : 
" Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel 
with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck, and 
made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be 
the third ruler in the kingdom. In that night was Bel- 
shazzar the king of the Chaldeans slam." 1 Berosus, on 
the other hand, states that, when " Cyrus took Babylon in 
the seventeenth year of the reign of ISTabonnedus," the king 
was not in the city, having previously fled to a place called 
Borsippus, where Cyrus subsequently besieged him, took 
him prisoner, treated him kindly, and " provided him 
with an establishment in Carmania, where he spent the 
remainder of his life." 2 Here the discrepancies between 
Daniel and Berosus are so great that it would have been 
impossible to reconcile them, had it not been for the 



1 Daniel, v. 29, 30. 

2 Berosus apud Euseb. Prsep. Evang. lib. ix. 



DANIEL THIRD US' BABYLON. 



35 



happy discovery of reading the cuneiform inscriptions. 
By means of these Sir H. Eawlinson has found 
that JSTabonnedus, whom Berosus speaks of as king of 
Babylon at the time of Cyrus's attack, had previously 
admitted his son Bel-shar-ezar (the Belshazzar of Daniel) 
into partnership with him in the government, just as 
Nabopalasar had Nebuchadnezzar. This enables us to 
reconcile the statements of Daniel and Berosus com- 
pletely. JSTabonnedus retired to Borsippus before the 
final catastrophe ; Belshazzar was feasting his lords as the 
prince regent, when Daniel interpreted the handwriting 
on the wall to foretell the downfall of his kingdom, and 
was slain in the night when the city was taken. And 
further, this remarkable discovery enables us to under- 
stand the expression, which has hitherto presented such a 
difficulty to commentators, that Daniel was made " the 
third ruler in the kingdom." Why not second, as Joseph 
had been made in Egypt ? Now the answer is plain ; 
JSTabonnedus the father would naturally be reckoned first; 
Belshazzar, the son, second ; and Daniel third. This is an 
undesigned coincidence as to the accuracy of Scripture 
statements in general, and to the genuineness and authen- 
ticity of Daniel in particular. 

Dr. Williams, however, may contend that these are not 
predictions in the sense which he attaches to the word, 
and of which he says there is not one in the Book of 
Daniel, "except by analogy and type." We certainly 
have a lively recollection of a very interesting prediction 
recorded in the Book of Daniel ; so interesting and so 
v important that the greatest reasoner perhaps amongst the 
children of men, as well as an earnest student of pro- 
phecy, the illustrious Sir Isaac Newton, is reported to 
have said that " the foundation of the Christian religion 
rested upon it." . We refer of course to the famous pro- 
phecy respecting the time of the death of the Messiah, or, 

D 2 



36 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



as it is generally known by the name of " the seventy 
weeks" which the Essayist, with rare confidence in his 
own unsupported theory, with a determination to close 
his eyes to every historic statement that bears upon the 
subject, and with the incredible infatuation of his school 
that his marvellous ideas will pass unchallenged and un- 
questioned, has the amazing temerity to affirm 44 ended in 
the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes." This he declares is 
44 clear beyond fair doubt" Let us examine this. The 
words of Daniel are as follows : 44 Seventy weeks are 
determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city. . . . 
Know therefore and understand, from the going forth of 
the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto 
the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three- 
score and two weeks : the street shall be built again, and 
the wall, even in troublous times. And after the (Hebr.) 
threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off," 1 &c. 
Without noticing the endless interpretations of the whole 
of this famous prophecy, as being foreign to our object, 
we would direct attention to the one important point, viz. 
the cutting off of the Messiah, or, in other words, the 
crucifixion of Christ. Does it really predict this great 
event ? and are these chronological signs sufficiently de- 
fined to enable us to compute with unerring accuracy 
when it was to take place, and thereby testify to the 
truth of the prophecy ? Dr. Wilhams will, of course, 
deny that it has any reference to the crucifixion or to 
Christ at all, but that, as it was a mere record of events 
which occurred in the Maccabean age, it can only be 
understood to refer to something in the history of Judas 
Maccabaeus. The first point to be settled in the consider- 
ation of this passage, is the meaning of the term translated 
44 weeks," but which might be rendered more literally 



1 Daniel, ix. 24—26. 



THE SEVENTY WEEKS. 



37 



" sevens " or " hebdomads," as the word standing by itself 
might equally mean a seven of days, i.e. a week, or a 
seven of years, which would define the term " seventy 
weeks " to mean 490 years. That this latter is the true 
meaning, there can be no doubt, from the context ; because 
if we w^ere to accept the view of the Essayist, that it is a 
history by some forger of the Maccabean age, that the 
seventy w r eeks is to be understood as a period of about a 
year and four months, at the termination of which his 
Messiah, whether in the person of Judas Maccabeus, or 
some one else, was to be cut off, there is simply nothing 
whatever in that period of Jewish history which can in 
any way whatever be made applicable to the passage we 
are considering. There was no command to restore and 
rebuild Jerusalem, because it was not needed, the city 
and the temple having been rebuilt after the Babylonish 
captivity, about 300 years previous to the Maccabean 
age ; the period daring which the temple was profaned 
by Antiochus Epiphanes was not seventy weeks, but about 
three years, as the author of the first book of Maccabseus 
minutely records. Judas Maccabasus did not pretend to 
be the Messiah, nor any other Jew at that period ; nor 
was he " cut off " or put to death as such. And if Dr. 
Williams, or any other critic of his school, can discover 
any appearance of application in the history of the 
Maccabean age, to wdiat is stated in ver. 24, such as 
finishing or restraining the transgression, making an end 
of sins, or bringing in everlasting righteousness, he must 
.possess spectacles of both telescopic and microscopic 
power, and be enabled to see farther into the past than 
any man, whether inspired or not, has ever pretended to 
look into the future. But in truth, so far from its being 
" beyond fair doubt that the period of the seventy weeks 
ended in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes," the state- 
ment is in itself so monstrous, and the Essayist has sq 

d 3 



38 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



judiciously avoided attempting anything like proof, in 
support of his marvellous theory, that we feel it scarcely 
needs the brief refutation we have thought it right to give. 

On the other hand, it is rather remarkable that another 
recent discovery in the department of Science, besides the 
interpretation of the cuneiform inscriptions — we refer to 
the reading of the Egyptian hieroglyphics — enables us 
to solve a difficulty which has hitherto baffled our com- 
mentators, in attempting to explain the time respecting 
the cutting off of the Messiah, according to the prophecy 
of the " seventy weeks." Without stopping to notice the 
endless attempts to reconcile history with prophecy in 
this instance, it will be sufficient to glance at the cause of 
the many failures, which we believe can be traced to the 
misunderstanding of Ptolemy's Canon respecting the com- 
mencement of the reign of King Artaxerxes, who granted 
the decree for restoring the broken-down wall of Jeru- 
salem. We do not seek to depreciate the value of that 
canon, which is of immense value for a right understanding 
of the chronology of the interval between the Babylonish 
captivity and the Christian era, on which Scripture is 
silent ; but we have certain proof that its chronology has 
been misapplied in this instance, by commentators seeking 
to unravel the truthful mysteries of this famous prophecy. 
According to Ptolemy's Canon, Artaxerxes Longimanus 9 
the son of Xerxes, began to reign B.C. 465. Hence there 
has been a difficulty with respect to the commencement 
and termination of the prophecy, or rather that chief 
point in it which refers to the cutting off of the Messiah. 
Some referring the commencement to the decree given in the 
seventh year of Artaxerxes' reign, respecting the worship 
in the Temple 1 ; others to the decree of the twentieth year 
of his reign, mentioned by Nehemiah 2 ; some considering 



i Ezra, vii. 11—28. 



2 Neh. ii. 1—20. 



DATE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 



39 



the cutting off of the Messiah to have taken place at the 
end of sixty-nine weeks, or 483 years ; others at the end 
of "the seventy weeks," i.e. in all 490 years. 1 The 
results of such computations are as follows : If the 
commencement of the prophecy is to be dated from the 
7th year (b. c. 458), it would terminateei ther a.d. 25 or 
a.d. 32, according to the mode of interpreting the termi- 
nation at the end of 483 or 490 years ; if from the 
20th year (b. c. 445), then it would end either A. D. 38, 
or a.d. 45. Now there is no evidence that the crucifixion 
took place in any one of these four years. The eary 
a.d. 32 is nearest that of the commonly received chro- 
nology, which places that great event in the following 
year, but an error of one year would be more than suffi- 
cient to invalidate the force of any prophecy, which God 
in His wisdom has condescended to give for the edifica- 
tion of His inquiring and believing people. We have 
evidence, however, of the strongest and most satisfactory 
kind, in which Eevelation and Science may be said to 
combine, to prove that the crucifixion or cutting off of 
the Messiah took place March 17th, a.d. 29. 2 Archbishop 
Usher, about two centuries ago, called attention to the 
fact, that Thucydides, who, as a contemporary historian 
must be a much greater authority than one who lived 
between five and six centuries later, placed the com- 



1 The eminent Dr. Lightfoot, however, differs from all these, as he 
dates the commencement of the seventy weeks in the first year of Cyrus, 

x b. c. 538, and the termination with the death of Christ, a. d. 33, thus 
making the period 571 years. (See Hebr. and Talm. Exercitations 
upon St. Matt. iii. 6). 

2 The author has endeavoured to show this in his work on " The 
Introduction of Christianity into Britain," by adducing the scriptural, 
prophetical, historical, and scientific grounds at length, which prove, as 
he ventures to think, " beyond all fair doubt," the true year of the, 
crucifixion, 

B 4 



40 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



mencement of Artaxerxes' reign nine years earlier than 
the Canon of Ptolemy, which gives twenty years as the 
length of Xerxes' reign, and forty for that of his son. The 
only way to reconcile these two anthorities, is by ac- 
cepting the suggestion of Whiston in the last century, 
that Xerxes must have taken his son Artaxerxes to share 
his throne, about the eleventh or twelfth year of his reign, 
just as we have already noticed Nabopalasar did Nebu- 
chadnezzar, and Nabonnedus Belshazzar. Now we have 
evidence that such was the case. At Hammamet, on 
the Cosseyr road from Persia to Egypt by the Bed Sea, 
some of the rare monumental records of the Persian rule 
in that country have been discovered, where a series of 
proscynemata have been engraved to the local divinity 
Khein, Lord of Coptus. The first of these is one of 
Adenes, a saris of Persia, who inscribes on shields, fol- 
lowing each other, " the sixth year of Cambyses, the 
thirty-sixth year of Darius, and the twelfth year of 
Xerxes" and which evidently denote the length of time 
which each king reigned in Egypt, though, as Xerxes is 
last in order, it may only show the year of his reign when 
the record was made. There are also other inscriptions 
of the second, sixth, tenth, and twelfth years of Xerxes, 
but none beyond that /^-mentioned year of his reign, 
save one, which is very remarkable, where the thirty- 
sixth year of Darius and the thirteenth of Xerxes, the son 
of Darius, are mentioned as synchronous years, the in- 
scription under each cartouche or oval being " Living like 
the sun for ever" 1 

By this we learn that the Persian sovereigns were 
accustomed to associate their sons in the regal power, 
and we conclude that Nehemiah and Thucydides alike 



1 Birch's Note in Loftus' Chaldaea, p. 411. Burton's Excerpta Hie- 
roglyphica, pi. viii. and xiv. Lepsius, Denkmaler, iii. 283. 



DATE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 



41 



date the commencement of Artaxerxes' reign from the 
time when he was associated in the government with his 
father. Xerxes' sole reign, after the death of his father 
Darius, with whom he was associated, according to the 
hieroglyphic record, being just about twelve years (the 
thirteenth current), or the same length before he admitted 
his son Artaxerxes into partnership with him, and this 
agrees with the length of years allotted to him in the 
"Excerpta Latino-Barbara," as edited by Scaliger. That 
the decree of the twentieth year of Artaxerxes is the one 
from which to date the commencement of the prophecy, 
is evident from the fact of the previous decree referring 
to the way in which the worship in the temple was to be 
carried on, whereas the decree given to Nehemiah was 
solely in consequence of the ruined condition of the walls 
of Jerusalem, which had remained so since the time of 
Nebuchadnezzar, and which Artaxerxes gave him per- 
mission to rebuild. If, therefore, we have any respect to 
the words of Scripture, whether of Daniel or Nehemiah, 
we may compute with unerring accuracy the time which 
the prophecy foretold should elapse from rebuilding the 
walls of Jerusalem to the crucifixion of Christ, viz., a 
divided period of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, or 
sixty-nine in all, equalling 483 years. Dating from the 
"twentieth year of Artaxerxes, B.C. 455, as the commence- 
ment of the famous prediction in Daniel, respecting the 
time of the Messiah's appearing, and adding the 483 
years, we are brought to the Passover of A. D. 29, in which 
. year we have an overwhelming amount of evidence that 
the crucifixion occurred. It will be sufficient to adduce 
one sort of evidence on this point, but which is of the 
most satisfactory kind. The Acta Pilati, containing the 
report of Pilate's government in Judea to the Emperor 
Tiberius, and which existed when Justin Martyr and 
Tertullian wrote their respective Apologies in the 2nd 



42 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



century, specify the 17th of March as the day of the month 
in the Eoman Kalendar when the crucifixion took place. 
This we learn from Epiphanius' account of the Quarta- 
decimans of Cappadocia, who justified their observance of 
Easter at that date, as St. John and the other Apostles 
had done before, from the time having been so speci- 
fied in the Acta Pilati. Hence, as we find by the 
astronomical tables, A. D. 29 is the only one of many 
years either before or after that time when the 14th 
day of the month Abib, or Nisan, as it was then called 
by the Jews, fell on the 17th of March, and as it is 
certain, from the unanimous testimony of the Evangel- 
ists, that " the Messiah was cut off " at the time of the 
Passover, which, by God's command to Moses, was kept 
on the 14th of Abib *, we have one of the strongest 
proofs which Science affords to the truth of Eevelation, 
that the prophecy or prediction recorded in Daniel was 
literally fulfilled at the time according to God's appoint- 
ment. 

Science affords us also another proof of what we believe 
may be fairly termed the marvellous exactness of the 
prophetic word respecting the time when the Messiah 
was to be cut off. We read in the Book of Nehemiah 
that it was " in the month Msan, in the twentieth year of 
Artaxerxes," that Nehemiah informed the king of the 
ruined condition of the walls of Jerusalem ; and sup- 
posing the decree for their restoration to have been 
dated on the 14th day of that month (Scripture does not 
specify the day), we may compute from that time unto 
the Passover of a.d. 29, when the prophecy would be 
accomplished in the cutting off of the Messiah ; for the 
expression " after the threescore and two weeks shall 
Messiah be cut off," must mean at the termination of the 



1 Exodus, xii. 16 ? 17, xin\ 3, 4. 



THE PERSONALITY OF J03S T AH. 



43 



483 years, just as we understand the prophecy respecting 
Christ's resurrection, " after three days," to mean at the 
expiration of the time specified. Now we find from 
the astronomical tables that the time for observing the 
Passover in both B.c, 455 and a.d. 29, fell on the same 
day, viz., the 17th of March. If, therefore, we are justi- 
fied in our inference respecting the decree of Artaxerxes 
having been dated on the ] 4th of the month ISTisan, on 
that very day 483 years afterwards, the prophecy was 
fulfilled to the letter when the " Messiah was cut off " on 
Mount Calvary. With such a proof of the truth of God's 
word, is it not marvellous that any one claiming to be a 
critic of " Biblical Eesearches " should betray his scepti- 
cism and his incapacity alike, by avowing his " conclusion 
that the book (of Daniel) contains no predictions, except 
by analogy and type, can hardly be gainsaid " ? 

§ 12. Dr. Williams' treatment of the Prophet Jonah 
seems to manifest an equal amount of scepticism with 
that of Daniel. " It provokes a smile on serious topics" 
writes this English clergyman, " to observe the zeal with 
which our critic (Bunsen) vindicates the personality of 
Jonah, and the originality of his hymn (the latter being 
generally thought doubtful), while he proceeds to explain 
that the narrative of our book, in which the hymn is em- 
bedded, contains a late legend founded on misconception. 
One can imagine the cheers which the opening of such an 
essay might evoke in some of our own circles, changing 
into indignation as the distinguished foreigner developed 
vhis views. After this he might speak more gently of 
mythical theories" (p. 77). Whether a "smile" is the 
most becoming mode for a professed minister of the 
Church of Christ to testify the intensity of his disbelief in 
the miracles which are recorded in Scripture, we need 
not stop to inquire ; but we think it would have been a 
happier avowal on the part of the Essayist, as well as 



44 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



more suitable to the obligations of his profession, if he 
had possessed both the knowledge and the faith of the 
old woman, of whom it is related that being taunted by a 
sceptical neighbour for believing that " a whale swallowed 
Jonah," very simply and justly replied, " If God had said 
Jonah had swallowed the whale, I would have believed 
it." We recollect once hearing an eminent English cler- 
gyman, who had been engaged in the whale fishery in his 
earlier clays, express himself in a public lecture on this 
subject, in a manner which might provoke " a smile," 
though his object was the opposite to that fatal theory 
which seems to pervade the mind of the Essayist. Well 
knowing from personal experience that the throat of the 
whale is capable of admitting little more than the arm of 
an ordinary man, he thought to reconcile Eevelation and 
Science by supposing that, as our Lord had compared the 
type and the antitype by declaring " as Jonas was in the 
whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of 
the earth ; " and as our Lord's body only lay on the 
surface of the earth, during the interval between his burial 
and resurrection, it was not to be understood that Jonah 
was swallowed by the whale, but that it was a sufficient 
miracle for the whale to have retained Jonah in his 
mouth, as that species of fish possessed one sufficiently 
large for the purpose, and moreover furnished with an 
" unruly member," equal in size to a sofa, and of a texture 
softer than velvet, on which the Prophet might comfort- 
ably recline during his three days and three nights' con- 
finement. The good man, however, clearly forgot one or 
two things in his singular conclusion. In the first place, 
Scripture by no means describes the animal which re- 
ceived Jonah as a whale, but merely says, " The Lord had 
prepared a great fish" Vm n \ into whose " belly " 

1 Dr. Adam Clarke observes that " some have translated ?n3 
by a fishing cove, or something of this nature ; but this is merely to get 



JONAH'S GrBEAT FISH. 



45 



the prophet undoubtedly went. And though it is true 
that the translators of the New Testament have intro- 
duced the word " whale" we all know that the Greek word 
xrirog is merely significant of any great fish, and that as 
the whale was known in their day, as it is in ours, to be 
the greatest of marine monsters, they thought it allowable 
to use such a word, without meaning it to be understood 
in its present common signification. We may question if 
that species of " great fish," from which our domestic 
article whalebone is obtained, was known to the civilised 
world before the time of King Alfred, in the ninth cen- 
tury, when some Norwegian fishermen are said to have 
discovered it ; and it is certain that the whale is not a 
native of the Mediterranean Sea, where the miracle in all 
probability took place. We say " in all probability," 
unless we accept the dictum of an Archbishop of Lisbon, 
who once gravely contended in the pulpit against the 
right of priority in the discovery of the Cape of Good 
Hope, which, was generally attributed to his distinguished 
countryman Vasco de Gama (though by the way the 
Phoenicians had circumnavigated the Cape ages before, 
according to Herodotus), since Jonah had previously per- 
formed the same voyage in the belly of the whale, which, 
by safely landing him at the mouth of the Tigris, enabled 
him to perform the remainder of his journey by water to 
Nineveh ! Further, the comparison of Jonah being in the 
mouth of the whale, as our Lord was buried on the 
surface of the earth, is rather beside the mark ; for the 
expression, " the heart of the earth," referred doubtless to 
our Lord being laid in a tomb dug out of a rock, as St. 
Matthew records, which would be suitably defined as 



rid of the miracle, for, according to some, the whole of Divine Revela- 
tion is a forgery, or it is a system of metaphor or allegory, that has no 
miraculous interferences in it." — Comment, in loco. 



46 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



belonging to the heart of the earth as distinct from the 
upper surface, or what geologists term the post-tertiary 
system. But the question which really concerns us is the 
possibility of there being any species of sea-monster inha- 
biting the Mediterranean Sea with a throat sufficiently 
large to swallow, and a belly to contain, a human being ; 
for though, in the exercise of His miraculous power, God 
could as easily enlarge the throat of a whale, and place 
him in any sea to which naturally he does not belong, we 
have no reason to suppose that He goes unnecessarily out 
of His way to perform a second miracle, in addition to 
what His own word declares. Now we have evidence 
that there is a " great fish " common to these latitudes, in 
which men have been discovered whole. Without ac- 
cepting the wonderful tales of Pliny \ who speaks of 
whales 600 feet long and 360 feet broad, or of Pornpo- 
nius Mela 2 , who relates that at Joppa they used to show 
the skeleton of a huge sea-monster, which was afterwards 
exhibited at Borne during the aedileship of M. Scaurus 
(though, as these are not writers of Scripture, possibly 
their stories will have more weight with -some than 
Christians would feel right to allow), we have the explicit 
testimony of credible writers that in more than one in- 
stance a fish of the species called carcharias, or dog-fish, 
has been taken in the Mediterranean, in whose belly was 
found the body of a soldier armed cap-a-pie. In Linnaeus' 
System of Nature by Miiller, a fact is mentioned which 
may be considered as illustrating the miracle of Jonah. 
At the close of the last century, during a storm in the 
Mediterranean, a sailor fell overboard, and was instantly 
received into the throat of a car char ias. An officer on 
deck having a gun at hand, fired instantly at the monster's 
head, and the shot taking effect, the creature disgorged 



1 Nat. Hist. lib. ix. c. 5. 



Lib. i. c. 7. 



JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 



47 



the sailor comparatively speaking uninjured. This " great 
fish" was subsequently captured, and found to weigh 4000 
pounds. We have, therefore, good reason to believe in the 
miracle recorded in the Book of Jonah ; but we have no 
reason to credit " the mythical theories " of the rational- 
istic school in general and of Essayists in particular, who 
seek to bring the miracles of Scripture down to the level 
of their own finite understandings. 

§ 13. On the grand doctrine of Justification by Faith, 
Dr. Williams asks, " Why may it not have meant the 
peace of mind, or sense of Divine approval, which comes 
of trust in a righteous God, rather than a fiction of merit 
by transfer? St. Paul would then be teaching moral 
responsibility, as opposed to sacerdotalism ; or that to 
obey is better than sacrifice. Faith would be opposed, 
not to the good deeds, which conscience requires, but to 
works of appeasement by ritual. It is not a fatal objec- 
tion to say that St. Paul would thus teach natural religion 
unless we were sure that he was bound to contradict it ; 
but it is a confirmation of the view if it brings his hard 
sayings into harmony with the Gospels and with the 
Psalms, as well as with the instincts of our best con- 
science " (pp. 80, 81). Again he remarks, " Our author 
(Bunsen) believes St. Paul, because he understands him 
reasonably. Nor does his acceptance of Christ's redemp- 
tion from evil bind him to repeat traditional fictions 
about our canon, or to read its pages with that dulness 
which turns symbol and poetry into materialism " (p. 83). 
How any man who has sworn to teach that "we are 
" accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for 
our own works or deservings," 1 and that " the offering of 
Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, 



Art. xi. 



48 



REVELATION AXD SCIENCE. 



and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both 
original and actual ; and there is none other satisfaction 
for him but that alone," 1 can reconcile the avowal of the 
above opinions with his retention of the status of an Eng- 
lish clergyman, we are at a loss to imagine. But it will 
be sufficient to notice the fatal mistake of which Dr. Wil- 
liams is guilty, in supposing that there is any difference in 
the teaching of St. Paul from that of the Evangelists in 
the New Testament, or of David in the Old. That the 
doctrine of the atonement, or the way by which we fallen 
creatures are " at one mind " (as the word etymologically 
signifies) with the Great Creator, by the mutual transfer 
of our sins to Christ and Christ's righteousness to us, as 
well as the doctrine of Justification by Faith, or God's 
righteous way of righteously accounting unrighteous man 
righteous, is taught alike in the Old and New Testament, 
the one leading on to the other, needs not much " Biblical 
Research " to discover. For as Bishop Horsley truly 
remarked, " That man is justified by faith without the 
works of the law was the uniform doctrine of the first 
Reformers. It is a far more ancient doctrine. It was the 
doctrine of the whole college of Apostles. It is more an- 
cient still. It was the doctrine of the Prophets. It is 
older than the Prophets. It was the religion of the Patri- 
archs." So the ancient fathers interpreted these great 
doctrinal verities ; e. g. Cyril of Alexandria, in the 5th 
century, writes, "He who formed the earth, and men 
upon it, He who adorned the heavens with stars, raised 
up for us as righteousness Jesus, who gratuitously redeems 
(for we have been justified by faith), releasing from chains 
and captivity, spiritually building the intellectual Jerusa- 
lem, and founding the Church, so that it shall be unmoved 
by the gates of hell, and unsubdued by enemies." 2 Chry- 

1 Art. xxxi. 

2 Cyr. Arch. Alex. Glapli)^. ii. p. 55 ; Tom. i. Lutet. 1638. 



JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 



49 



sostom in the preceding century had written : " God doth 
not say He made Christ a sinner, but sin, that we might be 
made, not righteous, but righteousness, even the righteous- 
ness of God. For it is of God, since it is not of works 
(which would require spotless perfection) but by grace 
we are justified, where all sin is blotted out." 1 We think 
we can trace the confusion which is so evident in the 
reasoning of the Essayist, to the mistake he makes of the 
different objects which St. Paul and St. James have in view. 
Both alike bring forward the case of Abraham, in whom 
Scripture was fulfilled, when he "believed God, and it was 
counted or imputed (sXoyloSrj is used by both) unto him 
for righteousness." St. James concludes : " Ye see then 
how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith 
only." 2 St. Paul writes : " We conclude that a man is jus- 
tified by faith without the deeds of the law." 3 Yet this 
apparent difference is in reality perfect harmony, when 
we remember that it is by faith only and not by works 
that man is accounted righteous in heaven, while it is by 
works only and not by faith, that a man is esteemed 
righteous upon earth. "K~on sunt sibi," taught the 
saintly Augustine, " contrarise duorum Apostolorum sen- 
tential Pauli et Jacobi, cum dicit unus justificari homhiem 
per fidem sine operibus. Quia ille dicit de operibus quas 
fidem prascedent, iste de his quas fidem sequuntur." When, 
therefore, we find a professed Minister of Christ, like the 
Essayist, terming " merit by transfer a fiction" and com- 
mending another for " understanding St. Paul (the most 
prominent teacher of the important doctrine of ' Justifica- 
tion by Paith ' in Scripture) reasonably" we cannot but see 
a striking fulfilment of the Apostolic declaration :. "The 
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; 



1 Chry., Horn. ii. on 2 Cor. v. 

2 St. James, ii. 23,24. 

E 



3 Rom. iii. 28, 



50 



KEVELAT10N AND SCIENCE. 



for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know 
them, because they are spiritually discerned. " J Had the 
Essayist more spiritual discernment respecting the doc- 
trine of the atonement, he would surely have avoided the 
use of such objectionable language respecting it, when he 
says " The angels who hover with phials, catching the 
drops from the cross, are pardonable hi art, but make a 
step in theology towards transubstantiation. Salvation 
from evil through sharing the Saviour's Spirit, was shifted 
into a notion of purchase from God through the price of 
His bodily sufferings." (p. 87.) 

§ 14. The mode in which Dr. Williams speaks of an- 
other fundamental doctrine of our religion, viz. that of the 
Trinity, which the Jews, though they refuse to recognise 
the Messiahship of Christ, have rightly termed "the 
mystery of faith," 2 is scarcely less objectionable. " With 
the mere speculative fathers," says he, " the doctrine of 
the Trinity was a profound metaphysical problem, wedded 
to what seemed consequences of the incarnation. But in 
ruder hands it became a materialism almost idolatrous, or 
an arithmetical enigma. Even now, different acceptors 
of the same doctrinal terms hold many shades of concep- 
tion between a philosophical view which recommends itself 
as easiest to believe, and one felt to be so irrational, that 
it calls in the aid of terror. ' Quasi non unitas, irrationa- 
liter collecta, hasresin faciat ; et Trinitas rationaliter ex- 
pensa, veritatem constituat,' said Tertullian " (p. 87). We 
cannot accept Tertullian's definition of the doctrine of the 
Trinity, simply because the work (Adversus Praxeam) 
from which the quotation is taken, though valuable so far 
as its object of exposing the Patripassian heresy is carried 
out, was composed after its author had deserted Catholi- 
cism for Montanism, and he cannot here be a safe guide 



i 1 Cor. ii. 14. 



2 Zohar in Gen. fol. 12, 4. 



THE ATHANASIAN CREED. 



51 



to us in our search after Divine truth. And we must 
express our surprise at the mode in which Dr. Williams 
speaks of the Athanasian Creed, as we naturally conclude 
his rod in terrorem refers to that wondrous definition of the 
faith, when he talks of one of many shades of conception 
of the doctrine being " felt to be so irrational, that it calls 
in the aid of terror." The " Catholic Faith," or the 
44 Eight Faith," as it is likewise termed in the Athanasian 
Creed, in its sound and proper definition of the truth, 
" calls in the aid of terror " no further than the Word of 
God itself. u The Catholic faith is this, that we worship 
one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. The right 
faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God, is God and man — who suffered 
— descended — rose — ascended — from whence He shall 
come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose com- 
ing all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall 
give account for their own works. And they that have done 
good shall go into life everlasting : and they that have 
done evil, into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic Faith, 
which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be 
saved." It is difficult, however, to understand exactly 
what Dr. Williams means in his attempted definition of 
this great doctrinal verity, which, though it may be above 
our reason, is not contrary to it. When he quotes from 
Hippolytus that " the Unity of God, as the Eternal Father, 
is the fundamental doctrine of Christianity," we accept 
it as a true expression of the Catholic faith, because it in- 
s eludes the Triune personality in the one undivided Je- 
hovah, just as man is one, consisting of these three several 
parts, body, soul, and spirit. So the Godhead in its in- 
comprehensibility is revealed to us in the person of the 
Father ; in its comprehensibility in that of the Son ; and 
in its communicableness in that of the Holy Ghost. But 
when he asserts that 44 the primitive Trinity represented 

e -2 



52 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



neither three original principles nor three transient 
phases, but three eternal subsistences in one Divine Mind " 
(p. 88), we cannot tell whether he means to deny or to 
recognise the separate personality of the Father, the Word, 
and the Holy Ghost, who, whatever value we may attach 
to the genuineness of 1 John v. 7, unquestionably compose 
the heavenly witnesses, and " these three are one." We 
think enough has been adduced from Dr. Williams' Essay 
to show the propriety of applying the epithet "painfully 
sceptical" which he rightly supposes some would consider 
applicable to Bunsen's " Biblical Besearches " (see p. 434), 
more peculiarly to his own criticisms on the doctrines, the 
prophecies, and the histories in Scripture ; and we gladly 
turn from this unwelcome task, of exposing a brother's 
failings, to consider how far Bunsen himself is a safe guide 
to a right understanding of the Word of God. 



53 



CHAP. II. 

While we would fain bear in mind, whether of Baron 
Bunsen or of any other who has been taken hence, 
the value of the old Latin adage, " De mortuis nil nisi 
bonum" we cannot but admit the necessity of the pro- 
posed emendation, "De mortuis nil nisi verum" And 
this is truly needful here, when we recollect the just 
admiration which this distinguished German scholar ex- 
cited during his life, of which we have already seen an 
instance in the manner in which Br. Arnold used to speak 
of his friend, together with his sincere Christianity, as 
exemplified (if we may judge from M. de Presense's 
affecting record of his last hours on earth) in his death. 
Of all the works which Bunsen published, and which 
Dr. Williams has generalised under the term "Biblical 
Eesearches," the one on which his fame will rest is un- 
doubtedly his "Egypt's Place in Universal History," a 
work that is. still incomplete, as far as the translation is 
concerned; though the concluding volume, there is every 
reason to believe, may be expected during the present 
year in its English dress, Putting aside the great talent 
- and varied learning displayed in the work itself, as well 
as the many and attractive qualities of its author, so long 
known and deservedly esteemed in this country as the 
popular Prussian Ambassador, how melancholy to find 
this eminent scholar, this able investigator, this student in 
" Biblical Eesearches," denying that there is any chrono- 
logical element in Revelation" which Dr. Williams has 

E 3 



54 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



commended as combining the incongruous qualities of 
quaintness and strength. " He (Bunsen) says with quaint 
strength, 4 there is no chronological element in Eevela- 
tion ' " (p. 57). On this point, as believers in Eevelation, 
we are necessarily at issue with this distinguished German, 
and our object will be to show not only how groundless 
are his views respecting the Chronology of Scripture, but 
how satisfactorily Science aids Eevelation in proving, 
with regard to " times and seasons," the truth and accu- 
racy of God's Word. And in order that we may not be 
unjust, let us hear, first of all, his own words respecting 
the " chronological element in Eevelation/' 

" As regards the Jewish computation of time, the study 
of Scripture had long convinced me, that there is in the 
Old Testament no connected chronology prior to Solomon. 
All that now passes for a system of ancient chronology 
beyond that fixed point, is the melancholy legacy of the 
17th and 18th centuries ; a compound of intentional 
deceit and utter misconception of the principles of histo- 
rical research. . . . . It is in Egyptian history, if 
anywhere, that materials are to be gathered for the 
foundation of a chronology of the oldest history of na- 
tions." 1 . . . . "Whoever adopts as a principle that 
chronology is a matter of revelation, is precluded from 
giving effect to any doubt that may cross his path, as in- 
volving a virtual abandonment of his faith in revelation. 
He must be prepared not only to deny the existence of 
contradictory statements, but to fill up chasms ; however 
irreconcilable the former may appear by any aid of philo- 
logy and history, however unfathomable the latter." 2 
. . . . " For the period of the sojourn in Egypt 
there existed neither historical chronology nor even his- 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. i. pref. viii. 

2 Ibid. vol. i. p. 161. 



BUNSEN ON BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY. 



55 



tory." . ..." It ought long ago to have been a 
settled point, that our present popular and school chrono- 
logy is a fable strung together by ignorance and fraud, and 
persisted in out of superstition and a want of intellectual 
energy." 1 .... "We think we may say that the 
chronology of Egypt which we have set up is verified when 
confronted with the Bible and with the Greek accounts of 
Egypt and Babylon, and we may also now add the cunei- 
form inscriptions of Nineveh." 2 .... " The chro- 
nology of the Exodus can only be ascertained from the 

Egyptian monuments We are certain to find 

in this quarter systematic contradiction to everything 
historical. For the date as here fixed is at issue with the 
Jewish-Christian calculation, and at the same time attacks 
long-established prejudices and hierarchical pretensions. 
We may, therefore, take for granted that any. synchro- 
nism which can be proved historically will be disputed 
and mistrusted a few years longer c for the glory of God.' 
Any one who knows nothing about, and does not wish to 
know anything about, philological research, may, without 
any difficulty, believe everything which he will, or is told 
to believe. Any one who has no rational grounds for his 
belief can never be at a loss for a doubt about anything 
historical. Doubt becomes his nature, because he lives 
in the unhistorical and in untruth." 3 . ' . . . "The 
ordinary chronology we declare to be devoid of any scien- 
tific foundation ; the interpretation, indeed, by which it is 
accompanied, when carefully investigated, makes the Bible 
H a tissue of old women's stories and children's tales, which 
contradict each other. When confronted with authentic 
chronology, it generally leads to impossible results. It 



1 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 440. 

2 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 20. 



3 Ibid. vol. iii. pp. 23, 24. 

e 4 



56 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



does not harmonise with anything which historical criti- 
cism finds elsewhere, and which it is under the necessity 
of recognising as established fact. It is, as regards the 
religious views of educated persons, the same thing as the 
stories in the Vedas about the world-tortoise are to those 
who are supposed to believe them — a stone of stumbling, 
and it will become more and more so every ten years. 
For it contradicts all reality, and necessitates the denial of 
facts which are as clear as the sun ; or if it does not suc- 
ceed in that, compels them to be passed over altogether as 
matters of no moment. In countries where research can- 
not be prohibited by the police, or is not punishable by 
excommunication, this indeed in the long run becomes 
exceedingly laughable, but it does not on that account 
cease to be unmoral." 1 . . . . "In the Egyptian 
we have obtained a fixed chronological point, and in fact 
the highest in general history. In it we find a perfectly 
formed language, which we can prove to have been in 
existence about the middle of the fourth millennium B.C. 
We, therefore, arrive at the very threshold of the forma- 
tion of language." 2 .... " The chronology of Egypt 
shows still more clearly than the traditions preserved in 
the Biblical book of the Origines, that the flood of Noah 
could not have taken place later than about 10,000 years 
B.C., and could not well have taken place much earlier." 3 
. . . . " It is obvious that if the attempted interpre- 
tation of the Biblical narratives about the early world be 
correct, it must be verified by an examination and resto- 
ration of the Hebrew traditions about the commencements 
of the post-diluvian world. It may be considered as a 
settled point that the Biblical narratives have taken their 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. pp. 348, 349. 

2 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 45. 

3 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 51. 



BUNSEN ON BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY. 



57 



legitimate place among the other traditions and records 
of general history. The real and eternal signification of 
the strictly ideal portion of Biblical tradition may now be 
thoroughly understood. No man can honestly deal with 
the present chronology, when, by the dates of the pyra- 
mids and other contemporaneous monuments, he must go 
back to nearly 4000 B.C., or the Judaic date of creation, 
in order to arrive at Menes." 1 . . . . " It ought 
strictly speaking, to be unnecessary, not to say unseemly, 
to adduce any proof that if there be historic truth in this 
tradition, it never can have meant that individual men 
lived six, eight, or nine centuries. Had this been the 
case, the statement ought to have been declared intrinsi- 
cally impossible. But our analysis has shown us that the 
original account meant no such thing. And still some 
who serve at the altar and in the halls of science, either 
from cowardice or superstition (not to impute to them worse 
motives), are not only not ashamed of avowing their own 
unbelief, but even caU upon other Christians, at the peril 
of being declared outcasts and infidels, to hold as true 
Christian faith the absurdities of their assumptions. It is 
one thing to say 4 1 believe the Biblical account, although 
I cannot explain it ; ' another, to set up as an article of 
faith an absurd explanation, the child of ignorance or of 
unbelief in the spirit. .... We have good rea- 
son to believe that what we have is only the misunder- 
standing of the earliest records of Biblical tradition. Even 
in the time of Solomon, the original tradition about Seth 

v and Enoch had ceased to be understood 

Christian writers, from Eusebius the Bishop of Csesarea 
downwards, began to act on the offensive, and to enter 
into the domain of falsehood. For any one who states 
that he knows a thing to be historical which he has not 



Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iv. p. 402. 



58 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



inquired into, and consequently does not know, is guilty 
of lying. . . . . Shortly after, all intellectual culture 
and learning perished in the West, and even the compila- 
tion of Eusebius was too much for the Western World of 
Eome. With that miserable epitome they were contented 
in the Middle Ages, that is during a thousand years. 
When in the 15th and 16th centuries men's minds were 
awakened, there rose the masters of research, but the 
necessity of political self-defence against persecution pre- 
vented them from carrying out fully their researches and 
fighting out the great intellectual battle. The 17th cen- 
tury, that triumph of bigotry and of tyranny in most 
countries, although beginning with so much light and 
hope, endeavoured to stifle its own conscience and that of 
the future by a display of learning, partly sophistical and 
partly spiritless, without ideas and without real erudition. 
The 18th century avenged itself, for the opprobrium to 
which it was obliged to submit, by suicidal mockery ; and 
the 19th has in the last thirty years witnessed, together 
with immortal discoveries, the most senseless and shameless 
attempts to re-establish in the world ancient and modern 
frauds falsehood, and nonsense, and pass it off as ortho- 
doxy. Posterity will find in the noble love of truth and 
the fearless faith of German research, an atonement and 
consolation for political follies and despotic violence. We 
must take care not to relax our steps, nor to turn round, 
but to go on in the course of restoration with all boldness 
and all the aids of research, not for the purpose of de- 
stroying an existing fabric, but of building up one that 
has been crushed by its own falsehood." 1 

Thus much respecting Bunsen's Biblical Eesearches, 
with reference to " the Chronological Element in Eevela- 



Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iv. pp. 395-7. 



bunsen's estimate of manetho. 



59 



tion." Some will naturally conclude that the severity of 
his invective betrays a conscious weakness of the cause 
which he adopts, and which he with deplorable violence 
of language seeks to defend. Believing for our own part 
notwithstanding, that the Chronology of Scripture is as 
much inspired, and, therefore, necessarily as true, as the 
doctrines or the history or the prophecies found in the 
Bible, we propose to adduce every species of scientific 
proof in order to corroborate Scripture Chronology, and 
to disprove by the very means on which he boastingly 
relies, viz. "Astronomy" and " Historical Synchronisms," 1 
the " quaint " and extraordinary theory by which he en- 
deavours to overthrow the plainest and most positive 
statements in God's Word. 

The great authority on which Bunsen mainly relies for 
upsetting the Chronology of Scripture is Manetho, the Egyp- 
tian priest, who flourished in the days of Ptolemy Phila- 
delphus, B.C. 285, and about thirteen centuries later, be it 
remembered, than Moses. Yet so infatuated is the learned 
German with this Sebennyte scribe, whose History of the 
Thirty-one Dynasties of the Kings of Egypt is known to 
us from the fragments preserved by Josephus in his trea- 
tise against Apion, as well as in the Chronicles of Syncel- 
lus, which are compiled from the earlier works of Eusebius 
and Africanus, in whose time the history itself was pro- 
bably extant, that he thinks the authority of Manetho is 
amply sufficient to overthrow the contemporary witnesses 
in Scripture, leaving out the question of inspiration ; and 
x all this, notwithstanding his admission that " the Egyp- 
tians possessed no work on history among their sacred 
books, nor had they any connected chronology like that of 
the years of Nabonassar, the Olympiads, or the building 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. i. pref. xli. 



60 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



of Eouie." 1 Indeed so boundless is his admiration for the 
Egyptian historian, that he can scarcely find language 
sufficiently eulogistic to express himself : — 

" Grateful I offer to thee whatever through thee I have learned ; 
Truth have I sought at thy hand ; Truth have I found by thy 
aid." 2 

The difference in his estimate of the writers of Scripture 
and Manetho 3 are so great that we can only express it by 
describing him as a giant in scepticism as regards the one 
and an infant in credulity as regards the other. As Bun- 
sen follows Manetho, so the Essayist follows his leader. 
" Our own testimony is," says Dr. Williams, " where we 
have been best able to follow him, we have generally 
been most able to agree with him. But our little survey 
has not traversed his vast field, nor our plummet sounded 
his depth : 

" And when those fables strange, our hirelings teach, 
I saw by genuine learning cast aside, 
Even like Linnasus kneeling on the sod, 

For faith from falsehood severed, thank I God." 

Dr. Williams' following of Bunsen, as he does Manetho, 
reminds us of the way in which quotations are frequently 
diverted from their true origin. The well-known and 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. i. p. 24. 

2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 392. 

3 Bunsen's grand error is seen in his determination to make Mane- 
tho's dynasties successive, instead of contemporary, as many of them 
unquestionably were. This may be proved, not only from the autho- 
rity of Manetho himself, who speaks of the " kings of Thebais and 
of the other provinces of Egypt," but the monuments themselves decide 
this point by the mention of the years of one king's reign correspond- 
ing with those of another, according to the conclusion of our most 
eminent Egyptologer, Sir G. Wilkinson. See Rawlinson's Herod, vol. ii. 
c. viii. app. book ii. 

4 Essays and Reviews, p. 93. 



DIFFERENCES IN EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 



61 



very beautiful saying, " God tempers the wind to the 
shorn lamb," has been supposed by many to be found in 
Scripture. Those who knew better, generally credited 
it to Sterne; but he stole it from George Herbert, who 
translated it from the French of Henri Estienne. So the 
errors of the Egyptian, having been adopted by the Ger- 
man, have been faithfully acknowledged by an English 
clergyman. We must not, however, omit to notice that 
Eratosthenes, the Grecian chronicler of Egyptian history, 
is relied upon by Bunsen, as well as Manetho, for the pur- 
pose of contravening Biblical chronology. And it is the 
enormous discrepancies which exist between these two 
contemporary authorities, as we gather from the frag- 
ments which have come down to us, which prevent our 
placing much reliance upon them, especially when they 
are used by clever advocates to set aside the consistent 
testimony of the inspired writers of Scripture. For ex- 
ample, the difference 1 between Manetho and Eratosthenes 
in the duration of those dynasties which reigned in Egypt 
from Menes (the same as Mizraim the son of Ham, Gen. 
x. 6) the first king unto Amuthantasus, who preceded the 
XVHIth dynasty, when " the king which knew not Joseph 
arose," is upwards of 3000 years. The former reckons 
it at 4055 years,. the latter at 1050. So likewise in the 
statements of Manetho himself, as they have been trans- 
mitted by the two Christian chronologers, Africanus and 
Eusebius, there is a difference of 400 years in the dura- 
tion of the first eleven dynasties, the former giving 2285 
v years, the latter 1876. Further, the different conclusions to 



1 Diodorus Siculus notices the great difficulty of ascertaining the 
truth in regard to Egyptian history, as he observes of one of their 
kings, " not only do the Greek writers differ among themselves about 
him, but likewise the Egyptian priests and poets relate various and 
different stories concerning him." — Hist. lib. i. c. iv. 



62 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



which distinguished Egyptologers in the present day have 
corne respecting most important periods in history, shows 
the utter vanity of the attempt to reject the testimony of 
Scripture on the question of chronology. The Hyksos 
period, as it is commonly called, representing the interval 
between Amuthantseus and the XVIIIth dynasty, lasted, 
according to Lepsius, 500 years, Bunsen, 1000, and Vis- 
count de Bouge 1900. Hence Bunsen very naively re- 
marks that he finds a " difficulty in coinciding either 
with the views of Lepsius or De Eouge in respect to the 
period which intervened between the 12th and 18th 
dynasties." 1 On the other hand Osburn, hi .his very valu- 
able work "The Monumental History of Egypt," has shown 
the mythical nature of the so-called Hyksos period alto- 
gether ; that in reality it was a struggle between the 
kings of Memphis and Thebes, who equally claimed 
descent from Menes, the proto-monarch of the whole of 
Egypt' 2 , and that the probable duration of the period 
between the 12th and 18th dynasties could not have been 
more than about 150 years. 

The chronological and historical differences are so great 
between ancient and modern writers on Egypt, that we 
shall have a good idea of the same by drawing an ideal 
comparison of the way in which events hi English history 
might in future ages be recorded. Let us suppose Lord 
Macaulay's New Zealander (not by the way his original 
idea) sitting on the broken arch of London Bridge, a.d. 
2862, and meditating the history of the mighty nation, 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. ii. p. 427. 

2 Three eminent authorities, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, Dr. Hincks, 
and Mr. Stuart Poole, agree in considering that after the reign of 
Menes the kingdom became divided, and while the remaining kings 
of the ] st and 2nd dynasties reigned in Upper Egypt, the 3rd and 4th 
reigned at Memphis, in Lower Egypt. See Rawlinsori 's Herodotus, 
vol. ii. p. 163. 



CONTRADICTIONS OF EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGERS. 63 

which once flourished, like Babylon and Tyre, and then 
had entirely passed away. He might learn from the few 
fragments of her history which remained in his clay, that 
it was very difficult to decide who " the great king " 
meant, occasionally referred to by early historians ; whe- 
ther it meant Alfred the Great, Edward III., or Oliver 
Cromwell ; for thus do historians dispute respecting the 
whereabouts of Sesostris the Great : that it was impos- 
sible to decide whether the Saxon Heptarchy meant con- 
temporary or successive kings, and the same of the sove- 
reigns of the Northern and Southern parts of the Isle of 
Great Britain, known as Scotland and England ; for thus 
some dispute about the dynasties reigning in Upper, 
Middle, and Lower Egypt : that it is not certain how 
long the Danes continued in England, whether 90 or 1440 
years, for that is the difference between the two great 
authorities Bunsen and Lepsius, who reject Scripture tes- 
timony respecting the duration of the children of Israel 
in Egypt : that it is disputed whether the interval be- 
tween the death of Alfred the Great and the Norman 
Conquest represented a period of 500 or 1900 years; 
these being, as we have already noticed, the two extremes 
which Lepsius and He Eouge give for the duration of the 
so-called Hyksos period, which in reality was only about 
150 years : that it is difficult to decide whether the 
celebrated William of Orange lived in the 7th or 17th 
century after Christ ; for that is the difference between 
Bunsen and Osburn, respecting the time of a very distin- 
guished Pharaoh called Phiops-Apappus, to whom Joseph 
was prime minister, one placing him in the 6th dynasty 
the other in the 16th, there being an interval of about a 
thousand years between the two : that it is disputed 
whether the reigns of the first three Georges of the 
Hanoverian dynasty lasted 87 or 192 years ; for thus do 
Manetho and Eratosthenes differ respecting the length of 



64 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



the reigns of the three kings who were distinguished as 
the builders of the Pyramids of Gizeh, and who succeeded 
each other. These things will afford some faint idea of 
the inextricable confusion which exists on important por- 
tions of Egyptian history, and amply sufficient to convince 
us of the impossibility of accepting it when it contradicts 
the plain and consistent statements of Scripture. We 
readily admit its value, as we shall now endeavour to 
show, when confirmatory of Scripture ; but we affirm, 
without the slightest doubt, that it is most unphilosophical 
and most unscientific to imagine, as the German rationa- 
lists have done, that their numberless contradictions re- 
specting the chronology and history of Egypt are likely 
to supplant the well-established chronology of the Word of 
God. In order that we may see at a glance the difference 
which exists between Scripture chronology and that 
which has been adopted and so zealously defended by 
Bunsen, we present a tabular view of some of the impor- 
tant epochs in the history of the world. 1 





The Bible 




Bunsen. 


1. 


The Creation of Man . 


4,100 




B.C. 

20,000 




Interval 


— 1,657 years. 


9,000 years 


2. 


Noachian Flood . . . 


2,443 




11,000 




Interval 




102 years. 


4,000 years 


3. 


Babel Dispersion 


2,341 




7,000 




Interval 




326 years. 


4,123 years 


4. 


Call of Abraham 


2,015 




2,877 




Interval 




215 years. 


122 years 


5. 


Joseph's Rule in Egypt 


1,800 




2,755 




Interval 




215 years. 


1,435 years 


6. 


Time of the Exode . . 


1,585 




1,320 




Interval 




566 years. 


306 years 


7. 


Building of the Temple 


1,019 




1,014 



1 When Dr. Hales, in his great work on Chronology, observed that 
" no less than 120 authors give a different period for the epoch of 
the creation of the world, the extreme range of difference between 



SACKED CHRONOLOGY. 



65 



We propose to examine these several statements, and we 
think we can show reasons for confirming the chronology 
of Scripture and rejecting that which Baron Bunsen has 
proposed to substitute hi its place. But before attempting 
this, it may be well to define what is meant by Biblical 
Chronology. Which are we to accept as inspired and 
genuine, the longer computation of the LXX., or the 
shorter chronology of the Hebrew Text ? The difference 
between the two, as well as that of the Samaritan, may be 
briefly stated as follows : 

Hebrew. LXX. Samaritan. 

From the Creation to the Deluge . years 1,656 2,262 1,307 
From the Deluge to the Birth of 

Abraham „ 352 1,002 1,002 

2,008 3,264 2,309 

The following reasons will suffice to show that the 
Hebrew Text contains the true Chronology, and that the 
other two are not to be depended upon : 1st. The LXX. 
and the Samaritan version abound in various readings 
with respect to their different chronologies, and frequently 
contradict themselves ; whereas the Hebrew is uniform 
and consistent in all its copies. 2nd. The Hebrew claims 
to be the inspired original, transmitted by those who 
were chosen by God to be " witnesses and keepers " of 
His Word, to whom, as St. Paul says, "were committed 
the oracles of God ; " 1 whereas the Samaritan Pentateuch 
was a translation, or rather another version in a different 
dialect, made about 900 years after the great original ; 
and the LXX. was a translation into another language, 
made in another country, about four centuries later still. 



them amounting to no less than 3,268 years," he little anticipated 
how soon an extension of 13,000 further years would be required to 
satisfy the speculative researches of the German school. 
1 Rom. iii. 2. 

F 



GG 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



3rd. The variations between the original and the transla- 
tion in the duration of the lives of antediluvian patriarchs, 
which is our only mode of computing the chronology of 
the world's history in those early times, appear to be not 
the effect of accident, but of design, on the part of the 
latter ; because the years before the father begat a son, 
and the residues in all the cases, agree with the totals of 
lives; e.g. it is said in the Hebrew, "Adam lived 130 
years, and begat a son," after which he lived "800 
years;" and "all the days that Adam lived were 930 
years, 5 ' for 130 + 800 = 930; whereas in the LXX., it is 
elongated before the birth of a son, and curtailed subse- 
quently, thus " Adam lived 230 years and begat a sen," 
after which he lived " 700 years;" and "all the days 
that Adam lived were 930 years," for 230 + 700 = 930. 
By this means the LXX. translators in Egypt were 
enabled to lengthen the antediluvian period, and thus to 
bring it nearer to that fabulous system of chronology 
which the Egyptians adopted, without any material 
difference from the original, as regards the duration of 
the Patriarchal lives, which they equally with their 
brethren in Judaea, acknowledged to be inspired of God. 
One manifest error in this mode of computation is seen in 
the fact of the LXX. making Methuselah live fourteen 
years after the deluge ; whereas it is abundantly clear 
that none but Noah and his family lived through that 
awful judgment. The Hebrew Chronology very pro- 
perly places the death of Methuselah in the year of the 
deluge, as indeed his name Meth-u-shelah — "He dieth 
and it is sent " — which his father the Prophet Enoch, was 
doubtless inspired to give him, seems to signify. 4thly. 
The account in Scripture of the dispersion of mankind 
102 years after the Deluge, is in favour of the shorter 
computation of the Hebrew Text. That dispersion was 
effected by the immediate interposition of God, in opposi- 



TIME OF THE DISPERSION. 



07 



tion to tlie wishes of mankind, who desired to dwell toge- 
ther at a time when they " all spoke one language," as it 
is written, " They said, Let us build a city and a tower— 
lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole 
earth ;" 1 from which it is manifest that the dispersion 
was commanded while they were yet few in number. It 
was evidently directed with a view to prevent the evils 
which would arise from over-crowded numbers in a 
limited space. But at the time assigned to this event by 
the LXX., more than 500 years after the Deluge (the 
Paschal Chronicle dates it 659 years after), it is clear 
from the average rate of the increase of mankind, that 
such was no longer the condition, and their dispersion 
would have been no longer a matter of choice, but of ne- 
cessity. And as the dispersion took place in the days of 
Peleg, who flourished in the second century . after the 
Deluge, according to the Hebrew Chronology, and when 
the human race, springing from three pairs, the children 
of Noah, would, according to the usual rate of increase, 
have amounted to about 50,000 persons, a suitable 
number for the population of one large city, — we have in 
this a reasonable proof of the correctness of the Hebrew 
text in opposition to that of LXX. 

St. Augustine, however, though advocating the Hebrew 
Chronology in preference to that of the LXX., which had 
been generally received by the earlier Fathers, accounts 
for the difference between the two on this wise, — " It is 
incredible that such honourable men, as those who trans- 
> lated the Septuagint were, would record an untruth. If I 
should ask them whether it be likely that a nation so 
large, and so far dispersed as the Jews, should all lay 
their heads together to forge this lie, and subvert their 
own truths ; or that the LXX., being Jews also, and all 



Gen, xi. 4. 
f 2 



68 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



shut up in one place (for Ptolemy had gotten them toge- 
gether for that purpose), should be envious that the Gen- 
tiles should enjoy their Scriptures, and put in those errors 
by a common consent — who sees not which is easier to 
effect ? But God forbid that any wise men should think 
that the Jews (however forward), could have such power, 
or so many and so far-dispersed books, or that the LXX. 
had any such common intent to conceal the truth of 
their histories from the Gentiles. One might easier be- 
lieve that the error was committed in the transcription of 
the copy from Ptolemy's Library, and so that it had a 
successive continuation dispersed through all future co- 
pies." 1 

Accepting then the chronology of the Hebrew Bible, as 
much a matter of Revelation as any other portion of 
God's Word, and therefore of necessity to be preferred to 
that of the LXX., we proceed to challenge the startling 
conclusions to which Baron Bunsen has come, and which 
he has advocated with so much learning, but which we 
think may be set aside, as it will be our endeavour to 
show, in a variety of ways, by recent discoveries in the 
departments of Science. It will be necessary, however, at 
the outset, to explain our meaning of " the Chronology of 
the Hebrew Bible." We do not mean the chronology 
which is to be found at the headings of the authorised 
version, and which bears the name of the very learned and 
devout Archbishop Usher, but rather that of Clinton, the 
most eminent amongst English chronologers of the pre- 
sent century, as set forth hi his admirable work the " Fasti 
Hellenici." The difference between the two may be thus 
stated. Usher dates the creation of man B.C. 4004, 
Chnton B.C. 4134. The cause of this difference is to be 
accounted for by the uncertainty respecting the exact 



1 De Civitatc Dei, xv. 11. 



THE TIME OF MAN'S CREATION. 



69 



interval between the time of the Exocle and the building 
of the Temple, in which, as Clinton observes *, " two 
breaks occur in the series of Scripture dates," which com- 
pel us in a measure to be conjectural, though only to the 
amount of a few years, and which we are obliged to 
endeavour to rectify by profane testimony. We shall, 
therefore, show cause in its proper place, why we have 
dated the Creation B.C. 4100 in preference to the thirty- 
four years' earlier date according to the computation of 
Clinton. 

§ 1. We propose to show some reasons for concluding 
that the Creation of man is to be dated about 4100 B.C., and 
then to examine the grounds on which Bunsen dates that 
great event 16,000 years earlier. Those who believe 
with regard to chronology that there is more than a 
"human element in the Sacred Books," and accept 
the superiority of the Hebrew text over that of the LXX., 
will naturally acknowledge that the mere addition of the 
numbers mentioned in the Bible for the several epochs 
between the time of the Creation and the fall of Babylon, 
where sacred and profane testimony may be said to meet, 
will give as the result something more than 4000 years 
as the B.C. date for the Creation of man. The analogy 
we draw from the record of Creation compels us to reject 
so early a date as 20,000 B.C., which Bunsen adopts for 
that event. The very general impression in past ages, 
both amongst Jews and Christians 2 , supports the interpre- 

1 Clinton makes the remark with reference to the extended period 
from the time of Abraham's birth to the destruction of the Temple, 
B.C. 587 ; bnt, in reality, the two breaks are included within the shorter 
interval, viz., the time of Joshua's rule over Israel, and the uncertainty 
how to reckon the number of years allotted to Saul and Samuel 
respectively. See Fasti Hellenici, vol. i. app. c. 5. 

2 So with regard to the opinions of the heathen, Suidas mentions 
the history of an ancient Tuscan author, who represented the six days' 
creation as so many thousand years. 

F 3 



70 



EEVELATION AND SCIEXCE. 



tation of St. Peter's words that "one day is with the 
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years' as one 
duy," 1 as referring to the 6000 years' period from the 
Creation to the end of this age, previous to the expected 
Millennium. Thus amongst the Jews an ancient tradition 
of the house of Elias computes the duration of the age : 
"2000 years empty, 2000 years the law, and 2000 years 
the clays of the Messiah." 2 Eabbi Katina, in the Gamara, 
observes, "the world is to endure 6000 years." Eabbi 
Eliezer, in his commentary, refers to the common opinion 
amongst his nation that " the world would continue 6000 
years, and then a perpetual Sabbath would begin, typified 
by God's resting on the seventh day and blessing it." The 
Cabalists rather fancifully concluded that the world would 
last 6000 years, because "the Hebrew letter ^, which 
stands for 1000 is found six times in Genesis i. 1 ;" and 
also because " God having taken six days in the work of 
Creation, and 6 a thousand years in Thy sight are but as 
yesterday when it is past,' therefore, after 6000 years' 
duration of the world, there would be a millenary Sab- 
bath of rest." Thus amongst the early Christians the 
author of " the Epistle of Barnabas," written probably in 
the second century, says, " God made the works of his 
hands in six days ; the meaning of which is, that in 6000 
years the Lord will bring aU things to an end " (ch. xv.). 
Ireneeus, Contra. Efer. v. xxviii. 3 ; Lactantius, Divine 
Instit. vii. 14 ; St. Augustine, De Civitat. Dei. xx. 30 ; 
interpret the teaching of what is said in Scripture, 
respecting the time of Creation, in the same manner. The 
ancient Persians appear to have entertained similar ideas 
respecting the longevity of this age, as we learn from the 
Eastern romance, entitled, Caherman Fame, in which the 
hero is represented as conversing with a griffin, named 



1 2 Pet. iii. 8. 



2 Talm. Tract. Sanhedr. cap. Halec. 



PEESIAN" CHRONOLOGY, 



71 



Simurgh, who tells him that, " she had already lived to 
see the earth seven times filled with creatures, and seven 
times reduced to a perfect void. That the age of Adam 
would last seven thousand years, when the present race of 
men would be extinguished, and their place be supplied 
by creatures of another form and more perfect nature, 
with whom the world would end." 1 We may fairly 
draw an inference from Science in support of the duration 
of this age lasting 6000 years. Speaking astronomically, 
the accurate adjustment of what is called the Gregorian 
year, by which the true solar or tropical year is found to 
consist of 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 57 seconds, 
whence it fell short of the Julian computation of 365 days, 
6 hours, by an interval of 11 minutes and 3 seconds, 
proves that at the termination of 6000 years from the 
time of the creation of man, a further correction of the 
calendar will then be necessary, as the deficiency of 11 
minutes 3 seconds, or 663 seconds, will amount to 1 hour 
and 40 minutes every 400 years. For in fifteen such 
periods,^as 15 + 400 = 6000 years, this deficiency will 
amount just to one day and one hour. 

Now, if we come to examine Bunsen's theory for ex- 
tending the period of the creation of man to 20,000 B.C., 
we find it resting upon these three grounds, {a.) He 
considers that it would require that length of time for the 
formation and perfection of the various languages in use 
amongst the civilised nations of the earth. The question 
which virtually arises is this. Shall we prefer the in- 
x ference of a learned scholar in the present day, to the 
positive statement of an inspired man made between 3000 
and 4000 years ago ? Concerning the time of about 
100 years after the deluge, it is written, " The Lord said, 
Behold the people is one, and they have all one language. 2 

1 Hyde's Eeligio Veterum Persarum. 

2 Professor Max Miiller, in his 8th Lecture (1861) " On the Science 

f 4 



72 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Let us confound their language, that they may not under- 
stand one another's speech. Therefore is the name of it 
called Babel ; because the Lord did there confound the 
language of all the earth ; and from thence did the Lord 
scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." 1 
Very possibly, the "one language" known to man until 
that time, according to the Scriptural account, was com- 
posed of monosyllables, each one having a distinct ideal 
meaning, and one meaning only. When this simple 
monosyllabic language prevailed, men would necessarily 
have simple ideas, and a corresponding simplicity of man- 
ners. 2 The language of the Chinese, a nation as old as, 
and with authentic history still older than that of Egypt, 
is exactly such as this ; and the Hebrew, when stripped of 
its vowel points (a comparatively modern invention), of its 
prefixes, and its suffixes, nearly answers to this character 
in its present state. The Arabic, Chaldee, Syriac, and 
Ethiopic languages, bear a most striking resemblance to 
their parent, the Hebrew. The account which Scripture 
gives, of the miraculous formation of other languages, 
besides the primeval one, and of the intention of God in 



of Language," justly concludes that, " however dissimilar the various 
classes might appear, they are all nevertheless derived from one pri- 
meval language. " Thus will it ever be found that Eevelation and 
Science go hand in hand. 

1 Genesis, xi. 6 — 9. 

2 Bunsen gives his opinion on the gradual formation of language 
with mathematical precision in the following complicated style : — 
" Formation and deposit of Sinism, B.C. 20,000. Primitive language, 
spoken with rising or falling cadence ; elucidated by gesture, B.C. 15,000. 
Pure agglutinative formation of polysyllabic words by means of the 
unity of accent, B.C. 14,000. Formation of stems into roots, producing 
derivative words, B.C. 11,000. Invention of hieroglyphic signs; the 
phonetic element introduced, by means of the establishment of ideo- 
graphs, to express a syllable, without reference to the original meaning." 
— Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iv. 485 — 487. 



CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 



73 



the execution of His purpose, has been quaintly expressed 
by an ancient French poet, which we introduce here, in 
order to show its natural effect upon designing and self- 
opiniated man. 

" Some speak between the teeth, some in the nose, 
Some in the throat their words do ill dispose ; 
' Bring me,' quoth one, ' a trowel, quickly, quick ! ' 
One brings him up a hammer. 1 Hew this brick,' 
Another bids ; and then they cleave a tree. 
1 Make fast this rope," 1 and then they let it flee. 
One calls for planks, another mortar lacks ; 
They bear, the first a stone, the last an axe. 
One would have spikes, and him a spade they give ; 
Another asks a saw, and gets a sieve. 
Thus crossly crost, they prate and pout in vain ; 
What one hath made, another mars again. 
These reasons then, seeing the storm arrived 
Of God's just wrath, all weak and heart-deprived, 
Forsake their purpose, and, like frantic fools, 
Scatter their stuff and tumble down their tools." 1 

No one, who really believes the Bible to be a revelation 
of God to man, can accept the vain theory of ]3unsen 
respecting the length of time required for the formation 
of languages, as sufficient to overthrow the plain and 
positive statement of Holy Scripture. 

(b.) Another ground which Bunsen takes for main- 
taining so early a date for the creation of man, is the 
marvellous stories of Manetho and other Egyptian chroni- 
clers, respecting the reigns of the gods and the demi-gocls 
in Egypt, previous to what are termed the historic periods. 
- Eusebius writes, " Among the Egyptians there is a certain 
tablet called the Old Chronicle, containing thirty dynas- 
ties in 113 descents, during the long period of 36,525 
years." 2 This same number is also mentioned by Jam- 
blichus, in connection with Egyptian history, as the 



Du Bartas.— J3a5y/<??j, 2 Euseb. Chron. vi. 



74 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



number of the Hermaic books, perhaps allowing a book 
to each year ; as he says, " Hermes wrote it all in 20,000 
books, according to the account of Seleucus ; but Manetho, 
in his history, relates that they were completed in 36,52 5. 1 
Eusebius in another place observes, that "the years (he 
considered they meant lunar years) which the Egyptians 
allow to the reigns of the gods, the demi-gods, and the 
manes, are 24,900." 2 We do not think that the Egyptians 
meant lunar years, as Eusebius supposed, and we trust to 
be enabled to show the grounds why they fixed upon 
some of those numbers mentioned above, when we come 
to examine Mr. Goodwin's Essay on " the Mosaic Cos- 
mogony," but it will be sufficient at present to mention it 
in order to show its striking improbability, as one of the 
reasons for Bunsen's date of B.C. 20,000, for the creation 
of man. The fabulous statements of Manetho and the 
Egyptian chroniclers, carry with them their own refuta- 
tion ; as it is very evident that had man existed on earth 
at that early period, the tradition of the deluge, as we 
shall presently see, when we come to notice what has 
been handed down through other nations besides the 
Jews respecting it, would not have been omitted in the 
account of the reign of ideal gods and demi-gods. 

(c.) Bunsen likewise finds support for his theory upon 
the ground " that Egypt was inhabited by men who made 
use of pottery about 11,000 years before the Christian 
era ; " adding very properly that as this opinion " may 
appear startling to the general reader, who has taken for 
granted that the existence of man does not date beyond 
six or seven thousand years, the author feels it his duty 
to state, as clearly and succinctly as possible, the particu- 
lar grounds on which the above conclusions are based, 



1 De My stag. § 8. c. i. 



2 Euseb. Chron. a.m. 200. 



horxee's pottery theory. 



75 



and to show that it is not a speculative geological 1 , but a 
positive historical research with which we have to deal." 2 
Let us now examine how far it is really " historical 
research," on which this conclusion can be said to rest. 
Some attempts having been made near Cairo, at the sug- 
gestion of Mr. Leonard Horner, who does not appear to 
have assisted in person, or even to have been in the coun- 
try, with a view to throw light upon the geological 
history of the alluvial soil of Egypt, by excavating the 
deposits of the Nile mud at the foot of the colossal statue 
of Barneses II. in the area of Memphis, he concluded, 
from the known rate at which such deposits are annually 
formed, that some specimens of ■'pottery, which were 
brought up from a depth, of thirty-nine feet, proved the 
existence of men upon earth long anterior to the time 
which Scripture assigns for the commencement of that 
event, though Mr. Horner says with becoming diffidence 
at his marvellous conclusions, which appear to have con- 
vinced the credulous Bunsen, " if there be no fallacy in 
my reckoning, this fragment of pottery found at a depth 
of thirty-nine feet, must be held to be a record of the exist- 
ence of man 13,371 years before a.d. 1854 ; " 3 adding at the 



1 One of the most eminent of living geologists, Sir Charles Lyell, 
mentions, in contradistinction to Bunsen's opinion, that " Bishop Berke- 
ley, a century ago, inferred on grounds which may be termed strictly 
geological, the recent (i.e. the Scriptural) date of the Creation of Man." 
— Principles of Geology, c. xlviii. p. 764. 9th edition. 

2 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. pref. xii. 

3 Sir G-. Wilkinson justly observes that although "the accumulation 
of alluvial soil at the base of the obelisk of Osirtasen at Heliopolis, as 
around the sitting colossi in the plain at Thebes (Rameses II.), has 
been often appealed to for determining the rise of the alluvial soil 
within a certain period, as there is no possibility of ascertaining how- 
far it stood above the reach of the inundation, when first put up, 
we have no base for any calculation" — See Rawlinsorfs Herod, ii. 
p. 8. 



76 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



same time, "in the boring at Bessousse fragments of burnt 
brick and pottery were brought up from the lowest part, 
viz., fifty-nine feet from the surface." 1 As at the same 
rate of deposit manufactured articles found at a depth of 
fifty-nine feet would give an additional 2 7000 or 8000 
years for man's existence on earth, we see Bunsen's reason 
for concluding not merely so early a date for the creation, 
but that there were Egyptian potters and burners of brick 
in active employment some 20,000 years before the Chris- 
tian era. Unfortunately, however, for the advocates of 
this ingenious hypothesis, there are several ways of ac- 
counting for the presence of manufactured pottery, and 
fragments of burnt brick in the deposits of the Nile, any 
one of which is sufficient to overthrow the theory of 
Messrs. Horner and Bunsen, which certainly at first sight 
looks an imposing structure, but which when tested is 
found to be resting on a very weak foundation. Herodo- 
tus (ii. 99) mentions that Men or Menes (the Mizraim of 
Scripture) the first king of Egypt, and founder of Mem- 
phis, circa B.C. 2350, was believed to have diverted the 
course of the river Nile eastward by a dam about twelve 
English miles south of the city, and thus to have dried 
up the old bed. As we know not the ancient course of 
the river, these recently discovered fragments found near 
the statue of Barneses II. circa B.C. 1450, which probably 
may stand on the old bed itself, doubtless dropt through 
some of the large fissures caused by the summer sun, in 
the deposits made by the inundation of the Nile, centuries 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. pref. xxv. 

2 Mr. Darwin enlarges upon this fanciful theory by asking, after 
alluding to the manufactured pottery of the valley of the Nile, " 13,000 
or 14,000 years ago," as a probable record of civilised man, — " Who will 
pretend to say how long before these ancient periods, savages, like those 
of Tierra del Fuego or Australia, who possess a semi- domestic dog, may 
not have existed in Egypt ? " — Origin of Species, p. 18. 



BURNT BRICK IN EGYPT. 



77 



after the time of Menes. Moreover, we know from the 
testimony of Makrizi that less than 1000 years ago the 
Nile flowed close to the western suburbs of Cairo, from 
which it is now separated by a plain extending more 
than a mile in width, in which there would be no diffi- 
culty, by digging twenty or thirty feet, in finding fragments 
of pottery less than 1000 years old. 

But there is a still more conclusive reply to Bunsen's 
theory concerning the fragments of burnt brick found at 
the same depth with pieces of pottery. Just as a coin, ' 
dug up in England some thirty feet below the present 
surface, of the reign of Cimobelinus, an ancient British 
king, with an inscription in Roman characters, would be a 
conclusive proof that it must have been struck some years 
after the Roman dominion had existed in this country ; 
so the presence of burnt brick in' the deposits of the Nile, 
however deep, betray the same comparatively recent 
origin. For it is an undoubted fact that there is not a 
single structure of burnt brick from one end of Egypt to 
the other earlier than the period of the Roman dominion. 
These fragments, therefore, of burnt brick 1 and pottery 
must have been deposited in the alluvial soil of Egypt 
after the Christian era, and instead of establishing the ex- 
istence of man on earth some thousands of years before 
the Scripture record allows, supply a convincing proof of 
the untenableness and frailty of Bimsen's theory, as well 



1 A casual remark by a recent historian of Egypt concerning an - 
"event during the eighteenth dynasty, i.e. circa B.C. 1600, confirms our 
opinion respecting the comparatively modern origin of burnt bricks in 
that country. " This fact appears on the stamps of unbumt bricks 
at Gournow." — Osbuni's Monumental Hist, of Egypt, ii. 193. In the 
Cosmogony of Sanchoniatho, Technites and Geinus Autochthon are 
represented as having " discovered the method of mingling stubble 
with the loam of bricks, and of baling them in the sun" showing that 
in those early days burnt bricks were unknown to the Phoenicians. 



78 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



as tend to confirm inferentially the Chronology of Scrip- 
ture. We think we have aheady adduced sufficient proof, 
though we propose to add more as occasion requires, in 
confutation of his " four theses," which he endeavours to 
establish, as he says, " by records peculiar to the history of 
Egypt. First : that the immigration of the Asiatic stock 
from Western Asia (Chaldean) is antediluvian. Secondly : 
That the historical deluge, which took place in a consi- 
derable part of central Asia, cannot have occurred at 
"a more recent period than the tenth miUennium B.C. 
Thirdly : That there are strong grounds for supposing 
that that catastrophe did not take place at a much earlier 
period. Fourthly : That man existed on this earth about 
20,000 B.C., and that there is no valid reason for assum- 
ing a more remote beginning of our race." 1 

§ 2. If we are right in fixing the . date of the creation 
of man at B.C. 4100, as the Scripture account gives ex- 
actly 1657 years as the interval from that epoch to the 
Noachian or historical deluge, the latter must be dated 
B.C. 2443. Bunsen on the other hand fixes upon B.C. 
11,000, as the correct date for that stupendous event. 2 
Moreover, in order to be consistent with his theory of a 
greater length of time being required than even B.C. 1100 
for the formation of language, as well as of man having 
existed in Egypt before that period, he denies the univer- 
sality of the deluge, not in the sense in which that ex- 
pression is generally used with reference to its extent 3 , 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, pref. xxviii. 

2 Ibid. vol. iv. 480. 

3 We must be careful to distinguish between what Scripture 
teaches respecting the destruction of the human race, and the extent 
which the waters overflowed the earth. For though Scripture affirms 
that " all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were 
covered," we may limit the word " all " just as we are compelled to do 
in other parts of the Bible ; e.g. it is said of Nebuchadnezzar, that 



THE EXTENT OF THE DELUGE. 



79 



but with regard to the destruction of the human race. 
Now what saith Scripture on the subject ? "All flesh died 
that moved upon the earth — and every man: All in 
whose nostrils was the breath of life, of ah that was in 
the dry land, died. And every living substance was 
destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both 
man and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of 
the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth; 
and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with 
him in the ark" 1 It is as impossible to conceive plainer 
language in support of the generally received opinion 
that the whole human race was destroyed at the time of 
the deluge with the exception of the eight persons in the 
ark, which St. Peter teaches 2 , as it is to receive the 
"painfully sceptical" opinion of Bunsen, whose theory 
compels him to deny it. In order to confirm the testi- 
mony of Scripture on this subject, we may notice the 
traditions that have been handed down through various 
nations respecting it. 

(a.) The Phoenician Sanchoniatho, the oldest historian 
next to Moses and the Scripture annalists, who lived, it is 



" wheresoever the children of men dwelt, God had made him ruler 
over them all" Dan. ii. 88. And St. Paul wrote, in the first century, 
of the Christian era, that " the Gospel was preached to every creature 
under heaven," Col. i. 23. It is sufficient for our purpose to know that 
Science is silent on what Revelation does not require ; and if so much of 
the earth was overflowed as was occupied by the hiunan race, both the 
physical and moral ends of that tremendous judgment were fully an- 
> swered. Bishop Stillingfleet justly observes, " The flood was universal 
as to mankind ; but from thence follows no necessity at all of asserting 
the imiversality of it as to the globe of the earth, unless it be suffi- 
ciently proved that the whole earth was peopled before the flood, 
which I despair of ever seeing proved." — Origines Sacrce, b. iii. 
c. iv. § 3. 

1 Genesis, ii. 21— 23. 

2 Compare 1 Pet, iii. 20 and 2 Pet. iii. 6. 



80 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



supposed, about the 12th century B.C., though not ex- 
pressly recording the deluge, represents what is worthy of 
note, that mankind sprung from one pair, reckons ten 
generations from them inclusive through the line of Cain, 
and places Mizraim, the grandson of Noah by name, hi 
the 12th descent, agreeably to the history of Scripture. 1 

(b.) Berosus, the Chaldsean, records two traditions re- 
specting the deluge, the separate details of which are in 
marvellous agreement with the statement in Scripture. 
He relates that " there was one amongst the giants who 
reverenced the gods, and was more wise and prudent than 
all the rest, whose name was Noa, dwelling in Syria with 
his three sons, Sem, Japet, Chem, and their wives, the 
great Tidea, Pandora, ISToela, and JSToegla. This man, 
fearing the destruction which, he foresaw from the stars, 
would come to pass, began in the seventy-eighth year before 
the deluge to build a ship, covered like an ark. After the 
seventy- eight years were expired, the ocean suddenly 
broke out, and all the inland seas and rivers and fountains 
bursting from beneath (attended by the most violent 
rains from heaven for many days) overflowed all the 
mountains ; so that the whole human race was buried in 
the waters, except Noa and his family, who were saved by 
means of the ship, which being lifted up by the waters, 
rested at last upon the top of the Gendyae, or mountain, 
on which, it is reported, there now remaineth some part, 
and that men take away the bitumen from it and make 



1 Euseb. Prgep. Evang. lib. i. c. 6, 9. Eusebius gives the following 
account of Sanchoniatho from Porphyry, that "he related in his his- 
tory Jewish affairs with great veracity, and agreed entirely with their 
history in the names of places and men; having his accounts from 
Jerobaal (Gideon, Judges vii. 1), servant of the God Jehovah, and 
dedicated his work to Abibulus, king of Berytus ; and his history 
was allowed to be true both by the king and by those who were 
appointed to examine it." 



BEROSUS OJN T THE NOACHIAN FLOOD. 



81 



use of it by way of charm or expiation to avoid evil." 
Another tradition which Berosus records is to this effect : 
"In the time of Xisuthrus (the 10th in descent from the 
first of the Chaldsean kings 1 ) a great deluge happened, 
which is thus described. The deity, Cronus, appeared to 
him in a vision, and warned him that upon the lhth day 
of the month Doesius there would be a flood by which 
marikind would be destroyed. He, therefore, enjoined 
him to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends 
and relations, and to convey on board everything neces- 
sary to sustain life, together with all the different animals, 
both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to 
the deep. lie obeyed the divine admonition, and built a 
vessel five stadia in length and two in breadth. Into this 
he put everything which he had prepared ; and last of all 
conveyed into it his wife, his children and his friends. 
After the flood had been upon the earth, and was in time 
abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel, which 
not finding any food, nor any place whereupon they might 
rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval 
of some days, he sent them forth a second time, and they 
now returned with their feet tinged with mud. He made 
a third trial with these birds, but they returned to him 
no more ; from which he concluded that the surface of 
the earth had appeared above the waters. He, therefore, 
made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out, 
found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain ; 
upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his 
.daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adora- 
tion to the earth, and having constructed an altar, offered 

1 Cosmos Indicopleustes, an Egyptian monk, relates from Timseus 
Locrus, that ten kings had reigned in the island Atlantis before it was 
sunk in the sea by a deluge. This seems to be some imperfect 
account of the Chaldsean ten kings before the flood. — Be Mund. lib. 
xii. p. 340. 

G 



82 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE, 



sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out 
of the vessel with him, disappeared. The place wherein 
they then were was the land of Armenia." 1 

(c.) In China they have a tradition of two great floods, 
one of which happened in the reign of the Emperor Jao, 
circa B.C. 2300, but which, they say, did not reach to 
China, nor even so far as India. Another, concerning 
which it was believed, as the very learned Sir William 
Jones describes it, that "just before the appearance of 
Fohi in the mountains, a mighty flood, which first flowed 
abundantly, and then subsided, covered for a time the 
whole earth, and separated the higher from the lower 
age of mankind." 

(d.) The same great authority relates the Hindu tradi- 
tion respecting the deluge as follows : " An evil demon 
having stolen the sacred books from Brahma, the whole 
race of men became corrupt except the seven Rishis, and 
especially the holy Satyavrata, who was once visited by 
the god Vishnu, and thus addressed : " In seven days all 
creatures who have offended me shall be destroyed by a 
deluge, but thou shalt be saved in a large vessel miracu- 
lously formed. Take, therefore, all kinds of herbs and 
grain for food, and, together with the seven holy men, 
your respective wives, and pairs of all animals, enter the 
ark without fear." Vishnu then disappeared, and after 
seven days, during which Satyavrata had conformed to 
the instructions given him, the deluge commenced, during 
which Vishnu preserved the ark by taking the form of a 
fish and tying it to himself ; and when the waters had 
subsided, he communicated the contents of the sacred 
books to Satyavrata, after having slain the demon who 
stole them. It is added, however, that on one occasion 
after the deluge, having drank too much he fell asleep un- 



Euseb. Cliron. v. 8. 



TRADITIONS OF THE FLOOD. 



83 



clothed, when Charma, one of his three sons, finding him 
in that condition, called on his two brothers to witness 
the shame of their sire. By them, however, he was 
covered with clothes, and recalled to his senses, when, 
knowing what had passed, he cursed Charma, saying, 
4 Thou shalt be a servant of servants.' " 

(e.) There is a tradition amongst the Dyaks of Borneo 
to the following effect. They call themselves " poor sim- 
ple fools," which they say was owing to an occurrence at 
the time of the great deluge, very long ago, when all 
mankind was destroyed save a pair of whites, a pair of 
Chinese, a pah* of Malays, and a pair of Dyaks, who all 
endeavoured to preserve the book winch was to teach 
everything. The white man placed the book on his head, 
which was thus preserved perfectly free from wet. The 
Chinaman placed it on his shoulder, and the other under 
his arm, by which each had his book partially injured. 
The Dyak tied his round his waist, and all having to swim 
for their lives, his book was thoroughly wetted and com- 
pletely spoiled. 

(/.) Thus much for the traditions in Asia respecting 
the deluge. If we turn to Africa we find in the hiero- 
glyphic records of ancient Egypt, the name of Noah, va- 
riously written as Nh, Nuh, and Nou, and worshipped as 
" the god of water," which Mr. Birch has truly identified 
with him who was entitled " the father of the gods " and 
"the giver of mythic life to all beneath him." 1 According 
to Plutarch's treatise of Isis and Osiris, it would appear as 
if tradition had represented Noah under the name of the 
latter ; when Typhon, a personification of the ocean, en- 
ticed him into an ark, which being closed was forced to 
sea through the Tanaitic mouth of the Nile. 44 These 
things," Plutarch reports, 44 were done upon the 17 th day 



1 Osburn's Monum. Hist, of Egypt, i. 239. 
g 2 



84 



REVELATION" AND SCIENCE. 



of the month Atnyr, when the sun was in Scorpio, in the 
28th year of Osiris' reign." 1 

(g.) The tradition of Europe is still more precise. 
Lucian, in his work De Dea Syria, represents the idea of 
a great deluge entertained by the Greeks, as follows : 
" The present world is peopled from the sons of Deuca- 
lion. The previous race were men of violence, to whom 
mercy was unknovm, and on this account were doomed 
to destruction. For this purpose there was a mighty 
eruption of water from the earth, attended with heavy 
rains from above, so that the rivers and sea overflowed, 
till the whole earth was covered with a flood and all flesh 
drowned. Deucalion, on account of his piety, was alone 
preserved to people the world. His preservation was 
effected by placing all his family, both his sons and their 
wives, into a vast ark which he had provided, and he 
then entered it himself. At the same time animals of 
every species — whatever lived upon the face of the 
earth — followed him by pairs ; all of which he received 
into the ark, and experienced no evil therefrom." Plut- 
arch confirms this tradition by adding that " as the voyage 
was drawing to a close Deucalion sent out a dove, which, 
returning in a short time, showed that the waters still 
covered the earth, but which on a second occasion failed to 
come back, or, as some say, returned with mud-stained feet, 
and thus proved the abatement of the flood." We have a 
confirmation of this Greek tradition in what is known to 
antiquarians as the Apamsean medal, struck in the fourth 
century B.C., which represents a man and woman seated 
in a floating ark, on which is inscribed the familiar name 
of Noe, while a dove on the wing is seen returning to the 
ark bearing an olive branch. 



1 Plutarch De Iside et Osiride, § 13. 



AMERICAN" TEADITIOXS OF THE FLOOD. 



85 



(A.) Nor is America 1 less devoid of traditionary records 
of the deluge than exist as we have seen in Europe, Asia, 
and Africa. Herrera, a Spanish historian, relates that 
the aborigines of the Brazils had some knowledge of a 
general deluge ; and in Peru, the ancient Indians believed 
that many years before there were any Incas 5 all the 
■people were drowned by a great flood, save six persons, 
who were saved on a float ; that amongst the ancient in- 
habitants of Cuba, the current tradition was to this effect, 
that " an old man, knowing the deluge was to come, built 
a great ship, into which he entered with his family, and 
many animals ; and that, being wearied at the long con- 
tinuance of the flood, he sent out a crow, which at first 
did not return, staying to feed on the dead bodies, but 
afterwards came back bearing with it a green branch." 
The Indians of North America hold that the common 
father of their tribes, being warned in a dream that a flood 
was coming, built a raft, on which he preserved his family, 
and pairs of all animals, which drifted about for many 
months, until at length a new earth was made for their 
reception by the " mighty man above." Humboldt in his 
wanderings in South America, found amongst the wild 
Indians of the wilderness surrounding the Orinoco, tradi- 
tions of the deluge still fresh and distinct. Amongst 
others he relates, that "when the Tamances are asked 
how the human race survived this great deluge, they say, 

1 That the Ancients had a knowledge of America some two thousand 
years before its discovery by Columbus, is evident from what Dio- 
dorus relates of the Phoenicians, of whom he says that, when " sailing 
beyond the Pillars of Hercules, they were driven by great tempests far 
into the (western) ocean, and being tossed about it many days by 
the violence of the storm, at length they arrived at a great island in the 
Atlantic Ocean, which lies many days' sail distant from Africa to the 
west. The soil was fruitful, the rivers navigable, and the buildings 
sumptuous ." By which we conclude it must have been peopled long 
before. — Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. 

G 3 



86 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



a man and woman saved themselves on a high mountain 
called Tamanacu, situated on the banks of the Asivern, 
and casting behind them over their heads the fruits of the 
mauritia palm tree, they saw the seeds contained in those 
fruits produce men and women who repeopled the earth." 

Thus the traditions of the deluge, which have been 
handed down amongst different nations in the four quar- 
ters of the globe, are in complete accordance with the 
Mosaic record respecting the destruction of the whole 
human race, the family of Noah excepted, and contradict 
thereby the unfounded theory of Bunsen, who hmits its 
effects, not merely in locality, but in regard to God's 
judgment upon mankind. Moreover, we have some evi- 
dence which may throw light upon the disputed time of 
this great deluge, whether it should be dated in the 25th 
century b. a, or whether, with Bunsen, as having occurred 
b. c. 11,000. 

We have seen that Berosus, the Chaldean historian, 
mentions that Xisuthrus was warned that the flood would 
commence "on the lbth day of the month Doesius ;" and 
as we know from Callisthenes \ that there were at Baby- 
lon astronomical observations which extended over 1900 
years prior to the time of Alexander the Great, in whose 
reign Berosus flourished, which would carry the authentic 
chronology of the Babylonians as high as B. c. 2233, i. e. 
within about a century of the building of the tower of 
Babel, we may reasonably infer that their tradition re- 
specting the time 2 for the commencement of the great 



1 Callisthenes sent Ms account of this from Babylon to his uncle 
and master Aristotle, who had desired him to procure it ; and Porphyry 
gave the account from Aristotle, which Simplicius has preserved. — 
Simplic. Conv. 46, in lib. ii. Aristot. de coelo. 

2 It is a singular confirmation of the correctness of this chrono- 
logy, that the origin of those ceremonials of solstitial sacrifice, which 
were celebrated on the accession of the Ethiopian monarchs, in 



HARMONY OF BEROSUS WITH SCRIPTURE. 87 



deluge was correct. Now the Scripture account gives 
" the 17 th day of the second month" 1 as the exact time 
when the Noachian flood commenced ; and as the Jews 
and Babylonians had a different mode of computing their 
months and years, just as Christians and Mahomedans 
have in this present day, if we can find on any one single 
year that " the 17 th day of the second month" amongst the 
Jews, agrees with " the Ihth day of the month Dcesius" 
amongst the Babylonians, we may infer that we have very 
strong grounds for concluding that such must be the true 
year when the deluge took place. According to our 
mode of computing Scripture chronology, we believe B. c. 
2443, to have been the date of this important event. It 
is not difficult to calculate any occurrence mentioned in 
Scripture when the day and month are given, as in this 
instance, because the Jews were commanded to regulate 
their years and months in a certain prescribed form ; and 
Moses, writing for their instruction, would necessarily 
record such an event as the Deluge, though happening 
eight centuries before his time, in a way which they 
would understand. The beginning of the Jewish year 
commenced with the new moon of the vernal equinox ; 
consequently, by referring to the astronomical tables, we 
can compute what we should call the March new moon 
of the year B. c. 2443, as having happened on the 23rd 
of that month. Hence, the first day of the second month 
would answer to our April 22nd, and the 17th day to 



honour of Cush, the grandson of Noah, and the probable founder of 
that kingdom, has been traced back to B.C. 2282, which well accords 
with our date of the dispersion of the human race and the foundation 
of the Egyptian kingdom, B.C. 2341. The mode of computing this, 
which is dependent upon astronomical calculations and a right under- 
standing of certain Phoenician cylinders and scarabaei, has been 
admirably worked out by Landseer in his Sabcean Researches. 
1 Genesis, vii. 11. 

g 4 







88 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



the 8th of May, on which day " all the fountains of the 
great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven 
were opened." The Babylonians appear to have had a 
different mode of computing the commencement of their 
year. With them it was a fixed festival, as it is with us ; 
only, instead of the first of the Eoman month Januarius 
being their New Year's day, it was the vernal equinox 
itself which regulated the beginning of the year ; and this, 
in the time of Berosus, happened on the 25th of March. 
As they reckoned thirty days to a month, Dcesius, which 
was the name of their second month, would fall on the 
24th of April, or two days later than, as we have just 
seen, was the case with the second month of the Jews on 
that year; consequently, "the 15th day of the month 
Doesius" would fall on the 8th of May, as "the 17th day 
of the second month" did, according to the Jewish mode 
of reckoning ; and thus we have one of many instances 
where Revelation and Science are shown to be in harmony 
one with the other. 

It is also worthy of note, if we are right in suppos- 
ing that the Egyptian legend respecting Osiris and 
Typhon, which has been already noticed, is a tradition 
of the Noachian deluge, that the embarkation of Osiris is 
said by Plutarch to have taken place 44 on the 17th day of 
the month Athyr." As Athyr was the third month in the 
Egyptian calendar, and the first month Thoiit was not 
fixed, like our January, but varied according to the helia- 
cal rising of Sothis, we are unable to conclude anything 
from Plutarch's mention of the name of the month, as we 
know not whether he referred to the time when he lived, 
or the period of which he was speaking, but it is a singular 
historical synchronism that the day of the month, viz., 
the 17th, should be the very day mentioned in Scripture, 
when Noah and his family entered the ark. 

The tradition of so many different nations in the four 



DATE OF THE FLOOD. 



89 



quarters of the globe, varying in minor details, and yet 
agreeing with much that is mentioned in Scripture, is 
sufficient to assure us that one and all refer to the 
Noachian deluge. None, however, specify the exact time 
when this event was supposed to have occurred. But the 
Phoenician tradition respecting Mizraim, the founder of 
the kingdom of Egypt, being the twelfth in descent from 
the first pair of the human race ; and the Chaldsean tradi- 
tion, which made the hero of the flood, that destroyed all 
mankind, whether under the name of Noa the Syrian, or 
Xisuthrus, the tenth in descent from the first king, as 
Noah was from Adam ; and the Chinese traditions res- 
pecting two floods, one of which was deemed universal, 
and the other not so extensive, to have happened in the 
reign of the Emperor Jao, circa B.C. 2300, are sufficiently 
in accordance with the chronology of Scripture, to war- 
rant our rejection of Bunsen's theory, who places it, as 
we have seen, B.C. 11,000. It has been considered by 
some that we have a clue to the correct date of the 
Noachian deluge, from the recent decipherment of a 
cuneiform inscription by M. Oppert, who considers he 
has detected on a Babylonian cylinder records of the 
deluge and the confusion of tongues, and who gives the 
following from a Khorsabad inscription : " The destruc- 
tion of the city of L-ka took place when the planet Yenus 
eclipsed the star Al-debarn, which is in the constellation 
Al-debar. Al-debar is opposite the six stars, and near 
the flying horse. This was fifty -four years from the sun's 
entry into Shor — the Bull." The late Mr. Ormsby, in a 
letter to the Journal of Sacred Literature, July, 1857, 
remarks that " the city referred to is L-ka on the Tigris, 
the first Eastern Semite colony, now known as Nimroud, 
and the date is thus precisely given (supposing there was 
an occultation B. c. 2420), as it refers to the periplus of 
Noah, the flood of the sacred Scriptures." Having, how- 



90 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



ever, been favoured by a communication from the Astro- 
nomer-Royal (in reply to a request that he would examine 
the question respecting the inference which has been 
drawn from this cuneiform inscription), in which he 
assures me "the result of calculations" shows "that an 
occultation of Aldebaran by Yenus was impossible" it can 
be no longer contended that b. c. 2420 is the "precise" 
date of the periplus of Noah, though of course it in no 
way affects our computation for that event, and which, 
according to Biblical chronology, we have dated more 
than twenty years before, or in other words at B. c. 2443. 
The testimony of the grammarian Censorinus, a very 
exact chronologer of the third century, confirms this 
opinion. When computing the pre-Olympic times, he 
says : " From the first or Ogygian flood to the first Olym- 
piad is not clearly known, but is thought to be about 
1600 years." 1 The date of the first Olympiad being 
fixed B. c. 776, we get b. c. 2376 for the supposed date of 
the flood, as traditionally reported amongst the ancient 
Romans, which is sufficiently near the Scriptural date for 
that event. 

§ 3. The interval between the Noaehian deluge and the 
dispersion of the human race on the attempt to build the 
tower of Babel, is, according to Scripture, 102 years. As 
it is written : " Shem begat Arphaxad two years after the 
flood, who lived thirty-five years and begat Salah, who 
lived thirty years and begat Eber, who lived thirty-four 
years and begat Peleg ;"...." Unto Eber were born 
two sons ; the name of one was Peleg (i. e. division), for 
in his days was the earth divided." 2 Now 2-f35-f-30-f- 
34=102. Consequently, if our time of the Noachian 
deluge B. c. 2443 be correct, the dispersion from Babel 



1 Censorinus, De Die Natali, cap. xxi. 

2 Genesis, x. 25 ; xi. 



TIME OF THE DISPERSION. 



91 



must be dated B. c. 2341. Biinsen, on the other hand, 
dates the flood B. c. 11,000, and the dispersion b. c. 7,000, 
leaving an interval of 4,000 years between the two events. 
Respecting the commencement of the kingdom of Egypt, 
which almost all authorities agree was founded by 
Menes, the Mizraim of the Bible, eldest son of Ham, and 
grandson of Noah, at the time of the dispersion from 
Babel, Bunsen writes : " History of Egyptian Deposit. 
Beginning of elective kings B. c. 7230. Duration of these, 
according to Manetho, 1817 years, end B. c. 5414. Begin- 
ning of hereditary kings in Lower Egypt, B. c. 5413 . . . 
Menes, king of all Egypt, B. c. 3623." 1 This will afford 
a distinct idea of the difference which exists between the 
chronology of Scripture after the deluge, and that system 
which Bunsen has adopted solely upon the authority of 
Manetho, and which, without any attempt at proof, he 
considers sunicient to overthrow the same. These 4000 
years Bunsen finds in the fabulous reigns of the gods and 
demigods recorded by Manetho, and invites our accep- 
tance of them, though contradicted by the unbroken and 
consistent testimony of Scripture. But further than this, 
we learn, from what history has transmitted concerning 
the three empires of Egypt, Babylon, and China, and of 
which we have more ancient and more complete records 
than any other kingdoms of the world, that they not only 
do not afford any grounds for Bunsen's ideal theory, but 
that they are in perfect accord with the chronology of 
the Bible. The histories of Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, 
Josepkus, and others, the lists of Manetho himself, and the 
canon of Eratosthenes, give the name of Menes, or Miz- 
raim, as the first man who reigned in Egypt, the date of 
which we infer from Scripture to have been about 100 
years after the flood, when the dispersion took place B. c. 

1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iv. p. 490. 



92 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



2341. The testimony of the existing monuments is 
strictly in accordance with this inference. The name of 
Menes, written in hieroglyphics, occurs at the head of the 
tablet recording the ancestors of Eameses-Sesostris, in a 
relief on the roof of the Eamesseum, or Memnonium, as 
it is more commonly called, a royal palace near Gournou, 
in Western Thebes. It is also found in hieratic charac- 
ters 1 in the Turin papyrus, brought from Thebes by 
Drovetti, and supposed to have been written in the 
fifteenth century B. c. If there were any foundation for 
Bunsen's theory of a long line of kings reigning in Egypt 
for 4000 years previous to Menes, there surely would 
have been some memorial of the same in the imperishable 
monuments of that wonderful country, or some tradi- 
tionary legend, of which early historians would have 
heard, and mentioned in their writings ; but there has 
never yet been discovered a sign of such mythical heroes, 
and therefore we are bound by all the laws of critical 
research to reject his unfounded and untenable idea. 
Champollion, the father of Egyptology, has distinctly 
affirmed his own conviction of the absence of any chrono- 
logical discrepancy between the records of Scripture and 
the facts recorded on the monuments. Alluding to the 
adversaries of revelation in his own day, he writes : 
" They will find in this work an absolute reply to their 
calumnies, since I have demonstrated that no Egyptian 
monument is really older than the year 2200 before our 
era. This certainly is a very high antiquity, but it pre- 
sents nothing contradictory to the sacred histories, and I 
venture to affirm that it establishes them on all points ; 



1 The hieratic mode of writing was a sort of tachygraphy or hiero- 
glyphic short-hand adopted by the Egyptian priests, and distinct from 
the third sort, called the demotic or enchorial, which bore the same 
relationship to it as our hand- writing does to print. 



champollion's testimony to scripture. 



93 



for it is, in fact, by adopting the chronology and the suc- 
cession of kings given by the Egyptian monuments, that the 
Egyptian history wonderfully accords with the sacred 
writings" Some writers 1 have considered that the long 
period of years, which Manetho and the Egyptian chroni- 
clers have given to their ideal heroes, as reigning in 
Egypt previous to Menes, are to be understood of months, 
and by this mode of reduction understand them as descrip- 
tive of the antediluvian periods ; but even this would make 
it too long for Scripture chronology, as the 36,000 lunar 
years of the Egyptian chronicle would give about 3000 
solar years as the duration of time previous to the first 
mortal king in Egypt, and make the date of creation B. c. 
5343, in place of its true date b. c. 4100. We believe 
there is a way of explaining this lengthened period, which 
we reserve for our examination of the Mosaic cosmogony, 
as we hope to be able to show from it a fresh instance of 
the agreement between Revelation and Science. 

If we turn to the history of Babylon, as extracted from 
Berosus, we find that the duration of the various dynas- 
ties from the time of Nimrod, its founder, to its capture 
by Cyrus B. c. 538, supports the chronology of Scripture 
respecting the date of the dispersion. 

B.C. 

1. The Median Dynasty of 8 kings reigned 224 yrs. 2341 — 2117. 

2. First Chaldean „ 11 „ 141 2 2117—1976. 

458 „ 1976—1518. 



3. Second Chaldean „ 42 

4. Arabian 9 

5. Assyrian 45 

6. Lower Assyrian „ 8 

7. Babylonian „ 6 



245 „ 1518—1273. 

526 „ 1273— 747. 

122 „ 747— 625. 

87 „ 625— 538. 



1 Jackson's Chronological Antiquities, ii. 119. 

2 This date is conjectural. Professor Brandis of Bonn gives 258 ; 
but as the average length of each reign in the succeeding Chaldean 
dynasty is only 9 years, we think it too high to estimate, as he does, 
the average length of each at 23 years, and have therefore been content 
with about 13, which is more likely to be correct. 



94 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Chinese chronology accords with this deduction, if we 
admit the testimony of the best Chinese writers, such as 
Xu-king, Confucius, and Mencius, who make the empire 
begin with Yan, the commencement of whose reign, ac- 
cording to Martinus and Couplet, is placed B. c. 2319 \ 
about twenty-four years after the time of the dispersion, 
according to Scripture, and a very natural period for 
mankind to spread from western to eastern Asia, and to 
establish an empire which has proved the most lasting of 
all the kingdoms of the world. Thus the profane testi- 
mony respecting the three great empires of antiquity, 
Egypt, Babylon, and China, confirm and support the 
chronology which we find in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

§ 4. The next point we have to consider is the time 
when Abraham's call, and his journey to Egypt took 
place, as forming a very important epoch in the history 
of the world, with whom Bunsen, as Dr. Williams ex- 
presses it, " reasonably conceives that the historical por- 
tion (of Scripture) begins 2 where the lives become natural 
and information was nearer" (p. 57). From the time of 
the deluge until Abraham's call, according to the Hebrew 
chronology, exactly 428 years elapsed, expressed by the 
number of descents from father to son, as well as the age of 

1 The learned chronologer Jackson, though an advocate of the 
chronology of the LXX., and who dates the reign of Yan nineteen years 
higher than Martinus and Couplet, bringing it thereby to B.C. 2338, 
within four years of oirr date for the dispersion, observes that " Chinese 
chronology from the reign of this emperor is fixed with great and 
undeniable certainty by a cycle of sixty years, and is continued from 
his reign without interruption to this day ; and this computation can 
no more be doubted of than the reckoning of the Greeks by their 
Olympiads." — Chron. Antiq. ii. 28. 

2 Another of the Essayists differs from this inference. Mr. Wilson 
observes that " previous to the time of the divided kingdom, the Jewish 
history presents little which is thoroughly reliable. The taking of Jeru- 
salem by ' Shishak ' is for the Hebrew history that which the sacking 
of Rome by the Gauls is for the Roman " (p. 170, note). 



THE TIME OF ABRAHAM'S BIRTH. 



95 



each parent at the birth of his child. Deducting the 102 
years from the interval between the flood and the disper- 
sion at Babel, which has already been considered, we 
have 326 years left, which brings us down to the year 
b. c. 2015, as the Scripture date for the time when Abra- 
ham took his journey to Egypt after his father's death. 
Bunsen makes an interval of more than 8,000 years be- 
tween these two events, and dates 44 the immigration of 
Abraham B. c. 2877." 1 In computing this part of Scrip- 
ture chronology, a dispute has arisen respecting the age 
of Terah at the time of Abraham's birth, which we must 
not omit to notice. Josephus places it when Terah was 
in his 70th year ; while Usher and Clinton more correctly 
adjudged it to have taken place sixty years later, when 
he was 130 years old, for this reason : It is clear from 
Acts vii. 4, that Abraham removed from Charran to 
Canaan after his father's death ; and from Gen. xii. 3 — 5, 
that at the time of this immigration he was 75 years 
old. Terah died in Charran aged 205, according to 
Gen. xi. 32. Now 205—75=130 the age of Terah 
when Abraham was born. Usher observes, "When 
Terah had lived 70 years, there was born to him the 
eldest of his three sons (Gen. xi. 26), and he, not Abram 
(who came not into the world till sixty years after), but 
Haran, father-in-law of the third brother Nachor, died and 
left a daughter married to her uncle Nachor .... Sarai, 
who was also called Iscah, the daughter of Haran, 
Abram's brother (Gen. xi. 29), was ten years younger 
than her husband Abraham." 2 Clinton adds to this con- 
clusion, that " the erroneous date for the birth of Abra- 
ham, placing the call of Abraham into Canaan sixty years 
before the death of his father, is contrary to Gen. xi. 32 ; 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iv. p. 492. 

2 Usher's Annals in loc. 



96 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



xii. 1, 4 ; and on this account in the Samaritan copy, the 
life of Terah is reduced to 145 years, that his death might 
be adapted to the supposed time of the call." 1 We can- 
not hesitate to accept this as the correct mode of com- 
puting the age of Abraham at the time of his father's 
death, when he left Charran and took his journey to 
Egypt. The difference between Scripture chronology 
and Bunsen's, with regard to Abraham, is nearly 900 
years, between the dates b. c. 2015 and B. c. 2877. One 
result of his system, which we shall presently have to 
notice, is that it requires us to prolong the sojourning of 
the children of Israel in Egypt from 215 years, according 
to Scripture, to over 1400 years, and necessarily carries 
its own confutation. What other testimony have we, 
confirmatory or contradictory, of the time of Abraham, 
according to the statements in Genesis ? The first thing 
mentioned in Scripture, after his leaving Charran or 
Haran and dwelling in Canaan for a time, is that " he 
went down to Egypt to sojourn," on account of a grievous 
famine in Canaan, and that when there he was hospitably 
entertained, for Sarah's sake, by the reigning Pharaoh, 
who gave him " sheep and oxen, and he-asses, and men- 
servants and maid-servants, and she-asses and camels." 2 



1 Fasti Hellenici, vol. i. p. 290. 

2 Gen. xii. 10, 16. V. Bohlen, a German rationalist, having endea- 
voured to deny the genuineness of the Pentateuch on the ground that 
no sheep existed in Egypt (though in another place, forgetful of his 
previous objection, he speaks of that animal being esteemed sacred 
by the Egyptians), it is remarkable that just before the period of 
Abraham's visit we have monumental evidence of their belonging to the 
country. In a tomb hewn in a rock near the pyramids of Gizeh, bear- 
ing the name of Suphis or Cheops, circa B.C. 2050, there is a repre- 
sentation of a shepherd giving an account of the flocks committed to 
his charge. First come oxen, over which is the number 834, cows 220, 
goats 3,234, asses 760, sheep 974. See Sir G. Wilkinson's Ancient 
Egyptians, i. 130, 2nd series. 



ABEAHAM IJN T EGYPT. 



97 



Have we any evidence in Egyptian history by which we 
can ascertain the name of the reigning Pharaoh at the 
time of Abraham's visit? Josephus relates, in addition 
to what is stated in Scripture, that God arrested Pharaoh's 
designs against Sarah by " sending a sedition against his 
government ; " and mentions that " whereas the Egyp- 
tians were formerly addicted to different customs, and de- 
spised one another's sacred and accustomed rites, and were 
very angry with one another on that account," Abraham 
acted the part of a wise mediator, and made peace be- 
tween the contending parties. Moreover, Josephus says 
that Abraham taught them " arithmetic, and the science 
of astronomy ; for before he came into Egypt they were 
unacquainted with that sort of learning." 1 In order to 
estimate aright the value of Josephus' testimony respect- 
ing any events in Egyptian history, we should remember 
that his chief literary opponent, Apion, was a custodian 
of the Temple records in Egypt ; and that had he stated 
anything untrue, or without due authority, his enemies 
wanted neither the will nor the power to expose his errors. 
We may reasonably conclude, therefore, that their for- 
bearance sufficiently proves its truth. What then is the 
lesson we may learn from Josephus respecting the time 
of Abraham's visit ? The description of Abraham as a 
pacificator, after some religious contest had been carried 
on amongst the Egyptians, seems to point very distinctly 
to the cessation of the war respecting the limbs of Osiris, 
which Plutarch mentions 2 , and which was parallel six or 
seven centuries later amongst the Jews in a civil war 
between the house of Benjamin and the children of Israel. 
We are unable to offer the lengthened proof required in 
order to show the grounds from Egyptian history upon 
which this conclusion rests, but we will content ourselves 



1 Antiq. I. viii. § 2, 3. 2 De Iside et Osiride, § 18, 19. 

H 



98 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



with quoting from Osburn's valuable History of Egypt, 
who considers it u a well-established synchronism of much 
value, that Abram went into Egypt in the reign of Pha- 
raoh Acthoes, and that the treaty which terminated the 
war for the limbs of Osiris was ratified during his sojourn 
there." 1 Moreover, as Josephus relates that Abraham 
taught the Egyptians arithmetic and astronomy, which 
was very natural when we remember that he was a native 
of Chaldea, where the science of astronomy originated, it 
is worthy of note that there does not exist a single record 
of king or subject with a date previous to the time of 
Pharaoh Acthoes ; whereas tablets and papyri, with dates 
inscribed upon them of Amenemes, the son and imme- 
diate successor of Acthoes, and on whose monuments the 
names of the Egyptian months first occur, are not un- 
common. Now, in the celebrated sepulchral grottoes of 
Benee-Hasan, in Middle Egypt, there are two hieroglyphic 
inscriptions, executed by or for persons living in the reigns 
of Amenemes L, Sesertesen I., Amenemes II., and Seser- 
fcesen II., Pharaohs belonging to Manetho's ] 2th dynasty, 
wherein special mention is made of the " Panegyry of the 
First Year," referring, as Poole in his learned work on 
Egypt very justly concludes, to the commencement of the 
Tropical Cycle, i. e. a perfectly exact cycle of the sun, 
moon, and vague year, which the science of astronomy 
fixes to b. c. 2005. 2 Now, considering that Amenemes I. 
was the son of Pharaoh Acthoes 3 , in whose reign Abra- 



1 Monumental History, i. 375. 

2 Poole's Horse iEgypticse, pt. I. sec. ii. 

3 Though Pharaoh Acthoes was reigning at the time of Abraham's 
visit, it is not certain that he was the king with whom Abraham had 
intercourse, as there were for a very long period in Egyptian history 
two or more contemporary Pharaohs. The one with whom Abraham 
had dealings was a Sebennyte Pharaoh of the 10th dynasty, probably 
Imephthis, the contemporary of Acthoes. To understand the compli- 



TIME OF ABRAHAM. 



99 



ham visited Egypt, according to Scripture chronology B. c. 
2015, we have a very remarkable confirmation of its ac- 
cordance with what Science reveals, that the son of this 
Pharaoh was on the throne ten years later, and on whose 
monuments we have proof of Abraham's instructions 
having been attended to by the introduction of months 
and dates, as well as the commencement of an important 
chronological cycle. 

We have further proof of Abraham having lived about 
B. c. 2000, and not 850 years earlier, as Bunsen thinks fit 
to place him. In the Scripture record 1 of the war which 
Abraham had to undertake in order to recover Lot, 44 his 
brother's son, who was taken captive," mention is made 
of two kings, Amraphel, king of Shinar (Babylon), and 
Chedorlaomer, king of Elam (Persia), the time of whose 
reigns accords with Biblical chronology, as we may judge 
from other testimony besides that of Moses. According 
to Abydenus, there was a king reigning at Babylon of the 
name of Arbel or Arabel, the same, we have little doubt, 
as the Amraphel of Moses. Abydenus speaks of him as 
the father of Mnus, whom Diodorus Siculus from Ctesias 
describes as the great conqueror of Babylon and the ad- 
joining nations of Egypt and Phoenicia. 2 Now, Manetho 
relates that when an army of Shepherds from Phoenicia 
conquered Egypt and made Salatis their leader, he fixed 
his seat at Memphis, and fortified most strongly the parts 
towards Chaldea, 44 foreseeing that the Assyrians, who 
were then grown powerful, would sometimes be inclined to 



cations of Egyptian history, we should remember that, besides the two 
contemporary Pharaohs just mentioned, there was then a third, in all 
probability named Salatis, who built Avaris, and whose capital wa,, 
Memphis, and who is commonly but erroneously termed the founder of 
the Hyksos dynasty, or Shepherd Kings. 

1 Genesis xiv. 1 — 16. 

2 Euseb. Arm. Chron. Diod. Sic. lib. ii. c. 1. 

H 2 



100 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



invade the kingdom of Egypt." 1 This Salatis, though in 
reality a descendant of Menes, and chief of the opposing 
dynasty to his rival at Thebes, had doubtless availed him- 
self of the assistance of the Phoenicians in the civil war in 
Egypt, which may account for Manetho's strange story of 
what is called the Hyksos period, and which Osburn, in 
his Monumental History of Egypt has so skilfully unra- 
velled. Salatis was the ancestor of Aphophis, the Pharaoh 
of Joseph, as we shall have occasion to show, and the 
duration of those kings whom Manetho mentions as 
reigning between Salatis and Aphophis accords with the 
215 years spoken of in Scripture between the time of 
Abraham and Joseph. We have thus established an his- 
torical synchronism between Arabel or Amraphel, the 
father of Mnus, and king -of Shinar (Babylon), and 
Abraham, from profane testimony, which is valuable so 
far as it confirms the accuracy of the Book of Genesis. 

The same may be said in respect to Chedorlaomer king 
of Elam (Persia), whose name has been deciphered by Sir 
H. Eawhnson from a cuneiform inscription as " Kudur- 
mabuk " (the latter word in Hematic being the exact 
equivalent of Laomer in Semitic), a king of Elamitic 
origin in Babylonia, who bears the remarkable title of 
Anda-Martu, or "Eavager of the West," which is very 
applicable to the account which Moses gives of his smiting 
the Eephaims, the Zuzims, the Emims, and the Horites 
in the fourteenth year of his reign, previous to his capture 
of Lot. 2 The celebrated Persian historian Mohammed 
Khavendschah, commonly called Mirkhond, has given in 
his Universal History two dynasties of Persian kings, 
reaching from the earliest times to the subversion of the 
empire by Alexander the Great. The second king of the 
first dynasty is named Hushang, or Houscheuk Pischdad, 



Joseplrus contr. Apion, i. 14. 



2 Genesis, xiv. 5, 6. 



JOSEPH IN EGYPT. 



101 



or Chedorlaomer, who appears to have been on the throne, 
according to Hale's mode of adjusting the chronology of 
the Persian historians Mirkhond, Firdusi, and others cited 
in Herbelofs Bibliotheque Orientate, during the twenty-first 
century B. c, which accords with the Biblical account of 
the time of Abraham. Thus, the evidence from profane 
testimony is most conclusive against the date which 
Bunsen assigns to Abraham, viz. b. c. 2877. 

§ 5. The next chronological epoch we have to notice 
is the time of J oseph's rule in Egypt, the consideration of 
which will necessarily bring to light the deplorable perti- 
nacity with which Bunsen seeks to set aside the plain 
statements of Scripture. Nothing can be clearer than the 
Biblical record respecting the interval between Abraham's 
visit to Egypt and his great-grandson Joseph's rule in the 
same country, which we gather from Scripture to amount 
to 215 years, and which Bunsen, without the slightest 
reason for so doing, curtails to 122. In order that we 
may make this very apparent, we give a tabular statement 
of the genealogy of the four generations of that period as 
recorded by Moses. 



Years 

Events. old. 


Year ol 
the call 






Abraham's call from Haran and visit 










to Egypt when 


75 


1 


Gen 


. xii. 4, 10. 


Isaac born when Abraham was . 100 


25 


>j 


xvii. 1, 21. 


Isaac married Eebecca when he was 


40 


65 


57 


xxv. 20. 


Jacob born when Isaac was . . . 


60 


85 


5? 


xxv. 26. 


Abraham's death at 175 when Jacob 












15 


100 


JJ 


xxv. 7. 


Joseph's birth when Jacob was . . 


91 


176 1 






Joseph sold into Egypt when he was 


17 


193 


•n 


xxx vii. 2. 


Isaac's death at 180 when Joseph 












29 


205 


}) 


xxxv. 28. 



1 As this is not stated, we can only infer Jacob's age when Joseph 
was born, from the fact of the son being 39 at the time the father was 
130, as will be seen in the accompanying table. 

h 3 



102 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Years Year of 
Events. old. the call. 

Joseph made viceroy of Egypt when 

he was 30 206 „ xliv. 46. 

End of the seven years of plenty 

when Joseph was ..... 37 213 „ xliv. 53. 
J acob and his sons go down to Egypt 

in the second year of the famine, 

when Joseph was 39 215 „ xlv. 6. 

Jacob stood before Pharaoh when he 

was 130 215 „ xlvii. 9. 

Joseph's rule in Egypt began in the 206th year after 
Abraham's call, and was at its height in the 215th, when 
he presented his aged father at the court of Pharaoh, 
and gave him and his brethren as a possession " the best 
of the land of Egypt, in the land of Eameses, as Pharaoh 
had commanded.'' This sufficiently disposes of the erro- 
neous chronology of Bunsen, who, by dating " the Immi- 
gration of Abraham b. c. 2877," and "Joseph Viceroy of 
Egypt B.C. 2755," 1 curtails it, without the slightest attempt 
at proof, to 122 years. And this he does notwithstanding 
his admission that " the personality of Abraham is un- 
questionable, and all the important circumstances related 

of him and his race are strictly historical Isaac is 

as certainly the bodily son and Jacob the bodily grandson 
of Abraham, as Joseph is the bodily son of Jacob and 
great-grandson of Abraham." 2 Bunsen considers Adam, 
Noah, and those patriarchs who are represented in Scrip- 
ture as having lived for centuries, to be representative of 
races, and not descriptive of individuals, which justifies 
him, as he thinks, in prolonging the period from 4000 to 
20,000 B. c. for the creation of man ; though his attempted 
proofs for this are not, as we have already seen, of a 
nature calculated to inspire confidence in the writer ; 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iv. p. 492. 

2 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 421. 



MODERN LONGEVITY. 



103 



indeed, we may say, they are most illogical and unphilo- 
sophical. But since he allows that " modern history 
begins with Menes and Abraham," and " it is with Abra- 
ham that the strictly historical tradition commences," 1 we 
cannot understand upon his own showing, if Manetho, the 
historian of Menes, is to be believed, why the testimony 
of Moses, the historian of Abraham, is to be rejected. 
It is true that he makes a distinction between the ages 
which Moses says the patriarchs attained and the events 
which are recorded in the Book of Genesis, as he observes 
that 44 no instance can be adduced demonstrably historical 
of any one reaching the age of 180," 2 and affirms it to be 
an 44 infatuation " and 44 purely childish delusions " to credit 
the ages of the antediluvian patriarchs as recorded in 
Scripture, 44 persistence in which can only be," he adds, 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iv. p. 377, 410. 

2 We may adduce two instances in modern times and in our own 
country of persons, one of whom lived nearly as long as Abraham or 
Isaac, and the other longer than Jacob or Josejm. " Old Parr " reached 
the age of 156, and Henry Jenkins, who was taken as a boy from the 
plough to carry arrows for Lord Surrey's army to the battle of Flodden 
Field, a.d. 1513, and appeared as a witness in the Court of Exchequer, 
a.d. 1665, died at Bolton in Yorkshire, where a tomb during the last 
century was erected to his memory, a.d. 1670, aged 169. See a 
pamphlet On the great age of Henry Jenkins, by Mrs. Ann Saville. 
There is another well-authenticated instance of longevity in the 
Countess of Desmond, who was born in the reign of Henry VI., 
a.d. 1464, danced at her wedding with Eichard III., and testified that 
he was not " humped-backed," according to the popular idea. She 
renewed her teeth twice in the course of her long pilgrimage, and 
having lost her property by attainder, she came from Ireland in the 
140th year of her age, to claim justice at the hands of James I. She 
marched on foot from Bristol to London, through inability to afford a 
conveyance, and on her return to Ireland met with a violent death 
when she was 140 years old ; for " shee must needs climb a nutt-tree 
to gather nutts, soe, falling down she hurt her thigh, which brought a 
fever, and that brought death," a.d. 1604. — Sidney Earl of Leicester's 
Table Book. 

h 4 



104 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



" productive of doubt and unbelief. 1 " Bunsen describes 
the events recorded in Scripture as the " historical ele- 
ment," and therefore to be believed ; but the ages are 
scornfully set aside, as interfering with his own theory, 
and termed " the Eabbinical view, which is as untenable 
critically as it is absurd philosophically." He adds that 
" the Biblical tradition must be understood according to 
the spirit, on the basis of the letter rightly understood ; a 
method which has been triumphantly discussed and settled 
by research and science during a century Having pre- 
viously declared it to be a " false or childish, not to say 
Godless notion of there having been a mechanical com- 
munication of the sacred books to a single man of God 
(that is, in the present instance, to Moses), for the purpose 
of transmission," he boasts that " we come to this con- 
clusion by sound science and research as much as by 
methodical thought." 2 We frankly avow that however 
great may be the learned German's " research" we have 
not yet met with a single specimen of " sound science " in 
support of his wild notions, so contradictory of the 
plainest statements of Holy Writ. We hope to be able 
to show this more distinctly than we have yet done in the 
consideration of our next historical epoch. 

§ 6. It will be more convenient, in considering the true 
interval between the time of Joseph's rule in Egypt and 
that of the Exode, which Scripture defines at 215 years, 
to include the longer period from the call of Abraham, 
bringing to bear all that Science has yet enabled us to 
learn respecting the much-mooted question respecting the 
presence as well as the duration of the children of Israel 
in the land of Egypt. We propose first of all to notice 
what is said in Scripture respecting the length of their 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. 340. 

2 Ibid. vol. iv. 384, 392. 



THE ISKAEL1TES IN EGYPT. 



105 



sojourn, and then to adduce the testimony of Bunsen and 
others, for the purpose of seeing which system of chrono- 
logy is most in accordance with what Science has recently 
revealed respecting the existence of the Israelites in 
Egypt, 

In the Book of Exodus, xii. 40, it is said that " the 
sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, 
was 430 years." This is explained by St. Paul in his 
Epistle to the Galatians, hi. 16, 17, who shows that the 
law which God gave to Moses at Mount Sinai was 44 430 
years after " the promise was originally made to Abraham. 
It is evident, then, from Scripture respecting the duration 
of the Israelites in Egypt, that we are to reckon the "430 
years " from the call of Abraham unto the Exode, and 
not, as some have erroneously done, from the time when 
Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt, which, we have 
already seen, took place in the 215th year after the call, 
leaving the same number of years for their actual dwelling 
in the land of bondage. On the other hand Bunsen en- 
deavours to make out that the children of Israel were 
more than 1430 years in Egypt, as he dates the time of 
Joseph as viceroy b. c. 2755, and the Exode b. c. 1320. 1 
Lepsius writes just as decidedly that " only about 90 years 
intervened from the entrance of Jacob to the Exodus of 
Moses, and about as much from the entrance of Abraham 
into Canaan to Jacob's Exodus ;" 2 while Osburn contends 
very strongly that the sojourn of the children of Israel 
from the time of the descent of Jacob and the patriarchs 
until the Exode lasted the whole " 430 years " mentioned 
in Exodus. 3 Let us briefly notice the Scripture grounds 

1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iv. 492, 493. 

2 Lepsius' Letters, translated by the Misses Horner, p. 475. 

3 Monumental History of Egypt, ii. 625, et sequitur. As Mr. 
Osburn's work on Egypt is one of an entirely opposite character to that 
of Bunsen's as regards the due recognition of the supremacy of Scripture 



106 



REVELATION AND SCIEXCE, 



for affirming that " the 430 years " can refer to nothing- 
else than the whole period from Abraham to the Exode. 

(a) The Hebrew text does not say that the sojourning 
m Egypt lasted 430 years, but that K the sojourning of the 
children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt," was for that 
period ; wherein is a 'distinction which it behoves us care- 
fully to observe. Just as that much disputed passage in 
St. Luke, ii. 12, " This taxing was first made when 
Cyrenius was governor of Syria," can only be properly 
understood by accepting Lardner's interpretation of St. 
Luke's words, " This was the first assessment of Cyrenius, 
who was governor of Syria," meaning that it was the 
first assessment made by Cyrenius in Syria, who sub- 
sequently became its governor : so we understand, when 
Moses is speaking of the sojoimiing of the children of 
Israel, that he includes the sojourning of Abraham and 
Isaac and Jacob in the land of Canaan, before them de- 
scendants came into possession of the promised inheritance 



on matters of chronology and Hstory, though we believe in this 
instance he has mistaken the meaning of Exodus xii. 40, it may be an 
act of justice to mention, since Bunsen has endeavoured to depreciate 
the work in question, by affirming " from a critical point of view it has 
no value whatever " (Egypt's Place, iii. 31), that he has not disdained 
to make use of at least fifteen discoveries connected with the history of 
Egypt which have appeared nowhere else than in Osburn's work, and 
has transferred them unacknowledged to his own. Bunsen's treatment 
of another distinguished Egyptologer, whose great offence is that he 
adheres to the chronology of the Bible, is marked with similar injus- 
tice, and deserves exposure. Speaking of Mr. Poole's Horae Egvpticse, 
which we have quoted above, Bunsen, with the usual superciliousness 
of the rationalistic school, says u his historical research is a failure 
from beginning to end. He has allowed himself the most incredible 
latitude of arbitrary assumption, in order not to disturb the Rabbinical 
system of ecclesiastical chronology in respect to the age of man upon 
•(he earth, which he has taken under his protection " (Egypt's Place, 
p. 31). Few who believe in Revelation, and have studied Science, 
will pay any heed to this unbecoming invective. 



THE LENGTH OP THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT. 107 

at the time appointed, as it is said in Hebrews xi. 9, 
"By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise 
as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with 
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same pro- 
mise." 

(b) The Samaritan Pentateuch, which is allowed by 
many learned men to exhibit the most correct copy of the 
Pentateuch, reads the passage, "Now the sojourning of 
the children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they 
sojourned in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt, 
was 430 years." 

(c) The best copies of the LXX., e. g. the Codex 
Alexandrinus in the British Museum, which we should 
regard as of some weight in the question, as being the 
authoritative version of the Scriptures and used by our 
Lord and His Apostles, read the passage in the same way. 

(d) St. Paul, being an inspired man, and writing 
under the influence of Him who was promised to guide 
the Church into all truth, so understood the passage, 
as we have already noticed, in his Epistle to the Gala- 
tians. 

(e) The Jews of old understood the meaning of the 
text in the same way, as may be proved from both the 
Talmuds ; one of which 1 reads " in Egypt, and in all 
lands," and the other 2 , " in Egypt and in the rest of the 
lands." So Aben Ezra interprets the words ; and Joseph 
Ben Gorion, a Eabbinical writer of the 10th century, says, 
" The dwelling of the children of Israel in Egypt and 
other lands was 430 years. Notwithstanding they abode 
not in Egypt but 210 years, according to what their 
father Jacob told them, "HI 'descend,' which in Hebrew 
signifies 210. Furthermore, the computation of 430 



1 T. Hieros. Megillah, fol. 71, 4. 2 T. Bab. Megillah, fol. 9, 1. 



108 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



years is from the year that Isaac was born, which was the 
holy seed unto Abraham." 1 

(/) The chronology of Scripture requires only 215 
years from the time of Jacob and his sons going down to 
Egypt until the Exode, and forbids our understanding 
that interval as being 430 years. For if the space from 
the descent of the patriarchs to the Exode, when Moses 
was 80 years old, had been 430 years, there would have 
been 350 years to his birth. But the mother of Moses 
was the daughter of Levi 2 , who, as he was 49 years of age 
at the time of the descent, and 137 at the time of his 
death, according to Exodus, vi. 16, must have lived in 
Egypt 88 years ; and if 350 years had intervened between 
the descent into Egypt and the birth of Moses, his mother 
would have borne him 262 years after her fathers death, 
which is impossible; whereas by accepting 215 years as 
the true interval, Moses' birth would have occurred within 
the more reasonable period of 47 years after his grand- 
father's death. 

(g) The connexion of the affliction of Israel for " 400 
years," together with its termination " in the fourth gene- 
ration," mentioned in Genesis, xv. 13, 16, shows that the 
sojourn in Egypt can only be understood of about half 
that period. The four generations being respectively 
represented by 1, Levi, who went down to Egypt with his 
brethren ; 2, Kohath, Levi's son ; 3, Levi's grandson Am- 
ram, who married his aunt Jochebed ; and, 4, Levi's great- 
grandson Moses, who led the children of Israel out of 
Egypt " in the fourth generation," according to the pro- 
mise of God. Stephen, in his address to the elders ot 
Jerusalem, refers to the bondage of the children of Israel 



1 Historie of the latter tymes of the Jewes Commonweal, by Joseph 
Ben Gorion. Translated by Peter Morwing. Oxford, 1567, pp. 2, 3. 

2 Compare Exodus, ii. 1, vi. 20. and Numbers, xxvi. 59. 



THE SOJOURN IJS T EGYPT. 



109 



and their suffering " evil 400 years ;" 1 but he does not 
affirm they were in Egypt for that period, any more than 
the passage in Genesis does. And that passage does not 
affirm it, because it limits their stay to the fourth genera- 
tion, and the ages of these four generations are delivered 
by Moses himself, the last of the four ; from which it is 
plain that the 400 years in round numbers includes the 
sojourning in Canaan. Clinton justly observes on the 
subject that "these facts show that some modern writers 
have very unreasonably doubted this portion of the 
Hebrew chronology, as if it were uncertain how this 
period of 430 years was to be understood. Those who 
cast a doubt upon this point refuse to Moses, an inspired 
writer (in the account of his mother and father and 
grandfather), that authority which would be given to the 
testimony of a profane author on the same occasion." 2 
All these things are quite sufficient to assure us that the 
sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt from the 
time of the descent unto the Exode was not more than 
215 years, according to the teaching of Scripture. And 
we shall find in confirmation of this, satisfactory evidence 
from the monuments of the existence of the Israelites in 
Egypt during that period, and neither before nor after it. 
This is of the very highest importance to a right under- 
standing of the testimony which Science, by the recent 
discovery of the key to the hieroglyphic inscriptions, 
bears to the truths of Revelation. We must, however, 
notice an objection which has been made against the great 
increase in the descendants of the Patriarchs during so 
short a period as their 215 years sojourn in Egypt. At 
the commencement " all the souls of the house of Jacob 
which came into Egypt were threescore and ten;" 3 at the 

1 Acts, vii. 6. 

2 Fasti Hellenici, App. Scripture Chronology, c, 5. 

3 Genesis, xlvi. 27. 



110 



REVELATION AXD SCIENCE. 



termination they had increased to " about six hundred 
thousand on foot that were men, beside children." 1 Dr. 
Bamngarten of Kiel has fairly reasoned out this statement 
as follows : " If 30 years are to be taken for a generation, 
the sixth generation begotten in Egypt is born in the 
180th year, and, consequently, at the Exode was above 
20 years old. This generation, therefore, comprises the 
majority of the 600,000 men. If, then, we deduct from 
the 70 souls who came into Egypt, 14, namely Jacob, his 
12 sons, and Dinah, there remain 56 pair who produced 
children." 2 Bunsen has endeavoured to set aside this 
reasonable conclusion according to his usual custom, and 
with the same failure of success, by a mixture of scep- 
ticism and ridicule. " This remainder of 56 pair out of 
70 souls puts us very much in mind of FalstafFs mode of 
reckoning. Dr. Baumgarten shows that from these 56 
pairs, giving each a family of six children, which is a mode- 
rate progeny for Goshen in the sixth generation, 4,000,000 
could so easily have been born in 200 years, that we may 
really wonder that the number of the children of Israel at 
the Exodus was not greater. I do not think this is good 
theology ; but I will confine myself to history, and say 
that the old Eabbis have hardly been more absurd." 3 
Had the learned sceptic really confined himself to history, 
he would have avoided exposing himself in the way he 
has done. A very high authority has shown from expe- 
rience that the Israelites could have increased as rapidly 
during their sojourn in Egypt as Scripture affirms they 
did. "According to a table of Euler," says Malthus, 
" the period of doubling will be only 124 years. And 
this proportion is not only a possible supposition, but has 



1 Exodus, xii. 37. 

2 Theological Commentary on the Old Testament, pt. i. p. 476. 

3 Eg} r pt's Place in Universal History, vol. i. p. 178. 



PROOF OF THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. Ill 

actually occurred for short periods. Sir W. Petty sup- 
poses a doubling possible in so short a time as 10 years." 1 
And the same author, quoting Short's Observations on 
Bills of Mortality, p. 259, observes, " It is calculated that 
the Israelites in Egypt doubled their numbers every fifteen 
years during the period of their stay." 2 We may, there- 
fore, consider it settled beyond the power of contradiction, 
as taught in God's Word and confirmed by experience in 
other instances, that the children of Israel increased 
during their 215 years' sojourn in Egypt from 70 souls to 
upwards of 2,000,000, their probable number, including 
their women and children, when they came up out of the 
land of bondage. 

Our object now must be to show that there is satisfac- 
tory evidence from the monuments of Egypt of the exis- 
tence of the Israelites at the period when Scripture chro- 
nology supposes them there, and we search in vain for 
similar indications at any other period in the history of 
that country. If we can establish our point, we need 
scarcely say how completely it is subversive of Bunsen's 
theory upon his own chosen ground of the value of his- 
torical synchronisms, respecting the interval between 
Abraham and Moses being upwards of 1400 years. "All 
persons," (i. e. all Christian chronologists), says George 
Syncellus, an eminent chronographer of the eighth century, 
"are agreed that Joseph was in power in the reign of 
Apophis" Who was this Pharaoh of whom tradition 
thus speaks ? According to Josephus, he was the fourth 
king out of six who formed what was commonly termed 
the dynasty of the Shepherd Kings. Africanus places him 
the last of the six. Eusebius places him the third out of 
four kings, to which he limits the dynasty. And Syn- 
cellus reverses this order by making him the fourth and 



Maltlius' Essay, vol. i. p. 8. 2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 190. 



112 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



last king. The two former authorities give him sixty-one 
years as the length of his reign ; the two latter shorten it 
to fourteen. This affords a fair specimen of the exceeding 
difficulty of understanding Egyptian history from the 
variations of different authors ; at least with regard to 
times anterior to the eighteenth dynasty, when history is 
more certain, and during which the Exode of the Israehtes 
took place. Before, however, entering upon the history 
of the patron of Joseph, it may be convenient if we insert 
a list of the two races of Pharaohs who were reigning 
contemporaneously in Egypt from the time of Abraham's 
visit until the death of Joseph, when a new king arose, 
according to Scripture, who "knew not" the Israehtes as 
heretofore, and which event can only be explained of the 
conquest of Memphis by Amosis, the termination of the 
civil war, erroneously called the Hyksos period or invasion 
of the Shepherd Kings, and the rise of the renowned 
eighteenth dynasty. We should remember that those two 
Pharaohnic races had each more than one capital at dif- 
ferent periods, just as the Emperor of Eussia may be said 
to possess three in this present day ; the capital of Upper 
Egypt being either Thebes, or Coptos, or Abydos ; and of 
Lower Egypt, either Memphis, or On (Heliopolis), or 
Avaris ; and that these Pharaohs de facto often assumed 
titles de jure, to which they conceived themselves enti- 
tled, just as the kings of England bore the title of kings 
of France until the beginning of the present century, or 
as the kings of Sardinia have added the titles of Cyprus 
and Jerusalem to their European dominions, which will 
account for the king of Upper Egypt frequently bearing the 
title of Lower Egypt as well, and vice versa, without any 
de facto power in that part of the country, which refused 
allegiance to their ride. Bearing this in mind, we may, 
by comparing Manetho's list of dynasties, as transmitted 
by Josephus, Africanus, Eusebius, and Syncellus, with the 



A DOUBLE LINE OP PHARAOHS. 



113 



discoveries from the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the mo- 
numents, especially in the chamber of Karnak 1 and on 
the tablet of Abydos, or from the hieratic reading of 
the Turin papyrus, ascertain the succession of these two 
lines of Pharaohs, as follows : — 



Kings of Upper Egypt. 


Kings of Lower Egypt. 


Achthoes. 


Imephthis. 


Amenemes L 


Othoes. 


Sesertesen I. 


Salatis. 


Amenemes II. 


Maoris. 


Sesertesen II. 


Apophis. 


Sesertesen III. 


Melaneres. 


Amenemes III. 


Jannes. 


Amenemes IV. 


Asses. 


Sebacon. 




Amosis. 





It is impossible to give with any degree of certainty 
the length of each individual reign of these kings, on 
account of the endless disagreements between the frag- 
mentary notices of such on the monuments, and the state- 
ments of Manetho and Eratosthenes. Even in Manetho's 
history alone the variations are very great as transmitted 
by the different Greek annalists. The contrast which 
this exhibits with the plain and consistent statements of 
Biblical history, omitting for a time the question of inspi- 
ration, for there is no difference between the readings of 
the Hebrew and the LXX. after the time of Abraham, 
ought to be sufficient to satisfy every candid inquirer of 

1 The chamber of Karnak, containing the ancestral tablet of 
Thothmes III. of the 28th dynasty, with portraits and names of sixty- 
one kings, to whom he is sacrificing, was discovered by Mr. Burton, and 
given to the public by the discoverer in his Excerpta Hieroglypluca, 
a. d. 1824. The tablet of Abydos, which represents Eameses-Sesothis, 
the great king of the 19th dynasty, receiving homage from fifty of his 
royal predecessors, was discovered by Mr. William Banks in 1818, 
and now forms a part of the splendid collection of Egyptian anti- 
quities in the British Museum. 

I 



114 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



the untenableness of Bunsen's theory, which seeks to 
elongate the well-ascertained period of 430 years into 
1440. The reign of Amosis, or of his son Chebron- 
Amenophis, synchronised with the birth of Moses, which 
took place eighty years before the Exode, and the termi- 
nation of the 430 years from the call of Abraham. And 
the improbability, may we not say the impossibility, of 
Moses, the seventh in descent from Abraham, omitting so 
lengthy a period as Bunsen's hypothesis requires, may be 
seen by supposing an English author of the present day, 
in writing the history of his country since the discovery 
of printing in the fifteenth century, were to be accused of 
having omitted all notice of the previous 1000 years. 
Such reveries stand self-convicted by their own improba- 
bility. But happily we can do more ; we can show by 
undeniable proofs from the Egyptian records, by the tests 
of astronomical science, and by the historical synchronisms 
of other nations, that the chronology of Scripture is true, 
and that of Bunsen is utterly unfounded and wrong. The 
time between the visit of Abraham to Egypt and the 
termination of the civil war in the capture of Memphis 
by Amosis, who may be likened unto our Henry VII. 
in English history, and who, being the founder of the 
famous 18th dynasty, was " the king that knew not 
Joseph," must be reckoned as 350 years. For Moses was 
born, according to the statement in Exodus, soon after the 
rise of that dynasty, and his birth preceded the Exode by 
eighty years. Now, if we search into Egyptian history, 
such as we have, of the two Pharaohnic races who were 
reigning contemporaneously during this period in Upper 
and Lower Egypt, we find an agreement with Scripture 
chronology sufficiently strong to satisfy us of its truth. 
As regards the kings of Upper Egypt, Osburn, who has 
analysed the hieroglyphic inscriptions with equal skill 
and far greater success than Bunsen, in his Monumental 



EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 



115 



History of Egypt, gives as the probable duration of the 
period from the death of Amenemes I., the son of 
Achthoes, and founder of what is termed the 12th 
dynasty, unto the death of Sebacon, the father of 
Amosis, the founder of the 23rd dynasty, 285 years, 
which, by allowing the remaining 65 years, the differ- 
ence between 285 and 350, for the reigns of Achthoes 
and Amenemes I. at the beginning of the period, and of 
Amosis (concerning whom all the Greek lists agree in 
giving 25 years as the length of his reign, and there is a 
hieroglyph of his twenty-second year) at its termination, 
we have a very satisfactory approximation to the chro- 
nology of Scripture. 1 It is the same with the kings of 
Lower Egypt. Josephus gives 260 years, Africanus 284, 
as the duration of the six Shepherd Kings (as they were 
subsequently called by the successful faction), from the 
time of Salatis, who was reigning at Memphis, when 
Sesertesen I. was reigning at Thebes, unto Asses, who 
probably fell, like Eichard III. at Bosworth, when Amosis 
captured Memphis, and united in his own person and 
family the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. 
Bunsen denies this striking confirmation of the truth of 
Biblical chronology in the history of the kings of Egypt, 
by endeavouring to make an interval of many centuries 
(though he appears undecided, as we have before noticed, 
whether it should be 500 or 900 years, a curious admis- 
sion for any one pretending to be a correct chronologer) 
between Amuntimeeus (Amenemes III.), the last king 

1 Eusebius in his canon makes the beginning of Amosis' reign syn- 
chronise with the 294th after the call of Abraham, and as Manetho's 
history was then in existence, his authority ought to have some weight, 
even with Bunsen ; but as he was only a Christian bishop, and not a 
profane author, German rationalism seeks to write him down as an 
intentional falsifier of history. Josephus, notwithstanding Bunsen's 
deserved eulogy of him elsewhere, is treated in the same way. 

I 2 



116 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



mentioned in the canon of Eratosthenes, and the time of 
Amosis. We believe the real period to be about one 
century ; and we may take this opportunity of observing 
that it is impossible either to understand an important 
epoch in Egypt's history, or to see its complete agree- 
ment with Scripture chronology, as long as we acknow- 
ledge that fable of the Hyksos dynasty, which was pro- 
bably originated by Manetho, the historian of the 
successful faction in ancient times ; and which has been 
amplified as well as misunderstood by Bunsen 1 , the advo- 
cate of the rationalistic school in modern days. Osburn 
has satisfactorily decided the question, and with great 
skill proved that the invasion of the Shepherds, and the 
establishment of the Hyksos dynasty, is nothing more 
than another race of native Pharaohs reigning in Lower 
Egypt, and claiming equally descent from Menes, though 
doubtless assisted by Shepherd soldiers from Phoenicia, 
during their constant wars with their contemporary kings 
in Upper Egypt. It has been assumed by somewhat, be- 
cause mention is made in Scripture at the time of Joseph's 
brethren going down to Egypt of " every shepherd 
being an abomination to the Egyptians," 2 it implies an 
allusion to the Hyksos or Shepherd dynasty, and a time 
subsequent to their expulsion. But even were there any 
truth in the fabulous story of the Hyksos dynasty, it 
would not necessarily have such a meaning, for we know 
from Diodorus that the lower orders of the Egyptians 



1 As a specimen of Bunsen's fondness for amplification, in order 
to lengthen his chronology thousands of years beyond Scripture testi- 
mony, or fact, or any attempt at proof, he gravely argues, " No place 
is anywhere found for an old monarch in the Book of the Dead, King 
Goose, in Egyptian Sent, whose scutcheon we give phonetically and 
figuratively. He may as well have been one of the unchronological 
kings before Menes" ! ! ! — Egypt's Place, &c, vol. ii. p. 112. 

2 Gen. xlvi. 34. 



EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 



117 



were divided into "shepherds, husbandmen, and artifi- 
cers," 1 and it appears from the context to the passage we 
have quoted that after Joseph's brethren were announced 
to Pharaoh as tending cattle by occupation, he com- 
manded that the best of the land in Goshen should be 
allotted to them. The phrase, " every shepherd," must 
be understood to mean " foreign shepherds," who were 
accustomed, as the Israelites, to sacrifice those very ani- 
mals, such as sheep and oxen, which the Egyptians held 
sacred. Hence Tacitus, in his description of the Jews, 
observes, " They sacrifice the ram in order to insult 
Jupiter Amnion ; and they sacrifice the ox, which the 
Egyptians worship under the name of Apis." 2 

We may see in the amazing differences between those 
who have made Egyptian history and these hieroglyphic 
inscriptions their life study, how little dependence can be 
placed upon any who leave the sure ground of Scripture 
chronology for their own crude and contradictory theo- 
ries. Osburn gives for the period between the 11th 
and 18th dynasties, as we have already noticed, and 
which he modestly describes as " the probable duration," 
the sum of 285 years, and which, as being in accordance 
with what Scripture relates respecting the visit of Abra- 
ham to Egypt, and the rise of that dynasty " which knew 
not Joseph," we have no doubt is the true chronology. 
For the same period Leipsus allows "500 years ;" Bun- 
sen, "perhaps nine centuries;" and De Eonge, " about 
nineteen centuries." When writers of the same school 
are so much at variance amongst themselves as to differ 
about fourteen centuries for an historical epoch, we may 
reasonably ask to be excused rejecting the consistent 
chronology of the Bible, and accepting their wild theories 
in its place, at all events until they are agreed as to what 



1 Hist. lib. i. c. vi. 2 Hist. lib. v. § 4. 

I 3 



118 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



they really mean. And the very language in which 
Bunsen indulges on this subject, sufficiently betrays a 
conscious weakness of the cause he seeks to uphold. 
"Professed scholars even," says he, " especially in Ger- 
many, do not blush to parade before all Europe a scanda- 
lous ignorance of Egyptian research, and to talk with 
caste-arrogance of 4 so-called contemporary monuments,' 
and 6 pretended explanations of the hieroglyphics.' When, 
however, that will not answer their purpose any longer, 
they come forward, especially in England, with theological 
suspicions and charges of infidelity. All such persons 
rush eagerly to attack our assumption as to the length of 
the Middle Empire (i. e. the period of dispute) with the 
arms, so often victorious, of positive denial, and by refer- 
ring to great names of those who lived before the disco- 
very of the hieroglyphics." 1 Now we propose to test the 
accuracy of his chronology, not by " the great names" of 
past times, nor by those "German scholars" of the present 
day, whom he appears to hold in such little esteem on 
account of their adherence to the testimony of Scripture, 
but by himself. We think we can show from his own words 
some reasons for disregarding his chronological theory on 
this portion of Egyptian history. Eeferring to Viscount 
De Eonge's translation of the Sallier papyri, an hieratic 
document of great importance with reference to this 
period, Bunsen observes, " This, as I learn from himself, 
contains a description of the negotiations between the 
Theban 4 Prince,' a king of the 17th dynasty, and his 
contemporary and foe, a king Apophis, at Abara (Uara, 
Avaris)." 2 Now, who was this king Apophis, residing at 



1 Egypt's Place, &c. vol. ii. p. 417, 418. 

2 Egypt's Place, &c. vol. iii. p. 32. For a fuller account of this historical 
synchronism, see the Exodus Papyri, by the Rev. D. Heath, chapter ii. 
Sallier i. By " Avaris," we conclude " Heliopolis," one of the three 



PHARAOH APOPHIS. 



119 



Abara or Avaris, the contemporary and foe of a Theban 
king of the 17th dynasty, according to Bunsen, and 
who must have lived not very long before the time of the 
18th dynasty, the commencement of which is recog- 
nised by all, speaking generally, as about 1700 B. c. ? 
According to Manetho, we read : There was once a king 
of ours, named Timeeus (or Amun-Timasus, the same as 
Amenemes III.), in whose reign men of ignoble birth out 
of the east invaded our country, and made of themselves 
a king, whose name was Salatis, who rebuilt the city of 
Avaris ; he reigned thirteen years ; then Beon, forty-four 
years ; then Apachnos, thirty-six years and seven months ; 
after him Apophis reigned sixty-one years ; then Janias, 
fifty years and one month ; after all these reigned Apis, 
forty-nine years and two months. This whole nation was 
styled Hycsos, i. e. Shepherd Kings ; for the first syllable 
Hyc, according to the sacred dialect, denotes a ki?ig, as 
sos signifies a shepherd. The kings of Thebes and of the 
other parts of Egypt rose in insurrection, and a long and 
terrible war ensued between them. They were finally con- 
quered by AHsphragmuthosis (i. e. Tethmosis or Amosis, 



capitals of Egypt, is meant, where the Pharaoh of Joseph certainly 
held his court. Sir Gardner Wilkinson observes that " the name of 
Heliopolis was ei-u-re, i the abode of the sun,' from which the Hebrew 
On or Aon, corrupted into Avert (Ezek. xxx. 17), was taken;" or it 
may be understood as describing the city where the Jews dwelt in 
Egypt, the same great authority remarking, "it is not impossible that 
the name of the city of Abaris may point to that of the Hebrews or 
Abarim (Gen. xi. 15)." — Raiolinson's Herodotus, ii. § 8 and § 136. 
Osburn shows that the rival faction were fond of ridiculing all names 
relating to their enemies, and it is possible it was done in this instance 
by corrupting the On of Scripture, the same as Heliopolis, into Abara, or 
Avaris, or Aven. Ewald in his " Geschichte des Volkes Israel," p. 450, 
contends that the word philologically means " city of the Hebrews." If 
so, it may only mean another name for the city which was called by 
the Egyptians On, and by the Greeks Heliopolis. 

i 4 



120 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



as he is variously termed, the head of the 18th 
dynasty ' which knew not Joseph '), and shut up in the 
place named Avaris, containing 10,000 acres. 1 " Manetho 
says, in addition, that this Shepherd kingdom, as he 
terms it, and which we have before explained to mean 
the rival Pharaohnic kingdom in Lower Egypt to the kings 
of Thebes 2 , lasted 511 years, which may help to account 
for Bunsen's theory of nine centuries, or De Bonge's of 
nineteen, for this period 3 of Egyptian history ; but this is 
evidently an incorrect reading, as the united sums of the 
various reigns of this Shepherd dynasty, as given by 
Manetho, amounts to only 254 years, which may be 
shown to be true, inasmuch as it harmonises with what 
we gather from Scripture. Comparing then the state- 
ment of Manetho respecting Pharaoh Apophis, in the city 
of Avaris, who died about 100 years before the rise of 
the dynasty " which knew not Joseph," with the fragmen- 
tary notice in the Sallier papyri of a Theban king of the 
17th dynasty negotiating with a king of the same name 
and residing at the same place, we have as decisive proof 
as we can need, that this king Apophis was reigning in 
Lower Egypt at the time when Joseph was first brought 
there as slave, and subsequently raised to the post of 
second ruler in that kingdom. It likewise refutes the 
theory of Bunsen, who dates the Exode of the Israelites 

1 Manetho apud Josephus contra Apion, i. 14. 

2 Osburn says, " the proof that the Shepherd invasion was a slander- 
ous perversion of the conquest of Memphis by the Lower Egyptian 
Pharaohs is very complete." — Mon. Hist. vol. ii. p. 56. 

3 Bunsen admits that " the tablet of Abydos jumps over the whole 
Hyksos period" (Egypt's Place, &c. vol. ii. p. 254), a concession 
which is as fatal to his own system of chronology as it would be to an 
author of the present day who should assert that Louis XVIII. suc- 
ceeded de facto to the throne of France on the death of Louis XVII., 
and that the twenty-five years of the Eevolution and the reign of 
Napoleon I. were mere myths, which never had existence. 



PHARAOH APOPHIS. 



121 



1000 years earlier, according to his system of anti-Biblical 
chronology. 

Apophis, Phiops or Apappas (for by these different 
names in the lists the same individual is meant), the 
patron of Joseph, appears from the monuments to have 
been one of the most magnificent of the Pharaohs. He 
ascended the throne early in life, or rather reigned con- 
jointly for a period of more than sixty years with his 
father and grandfather, and lived to an advanced age. 
The monuments of this king that have yet been disco- 
vered are but few, in consequence, as Osburn naturally 
concludes, of Memphis and Thebes being still covered 
with sand. The only exploit of this king of which there 
is any monumental record, is the defeat of the Egyptians 
of the rival kingdom, which is said in the hieroglyphic 
inscription to have taken place in the mountains of Wes- 
tern Thebes. This feat of arms is commemorated in a 
superb tablet sculptured on the face of one of the granite 
cliffs in the Sinaitic peninsula. It is in two compart- 
ments. In one Apophis is represented as wearing the 
crown of Lower Egypt, and in the other that of Upper 
Egypt ; showing that at one period of his reign he must 
either have possessed or claimed the whole kingdom. 1 In 
the hieroglyphic genealogy, as given in the tablets belong- 
ing to the chamber of Karnak, Apophis is declared to be 
king of Lower Egypt, at the time that Sebacon, the suc- 
cessor of Amuntimseus, was king in Upper Egypt. The few 



1 Though Pharaoh Apophis was probably king of both Egypts at one 
period of his reign, it does not follow that the mere claimant of that 
title implies possession of the whole country ; e. g. in a tablet on the 
Cosseyr road from Persia to Egypt, by the Eed Sea, which is given in 
Burton's Excerpta Hieroglyphics^ an inscription relating to Amenemha I. 
reads, " The Lord of all Egypt, Neb-tete-ra, living for ever, like the Sun, 
says, I will establish his Majesty — King Amenemha with soldiers in 
Upper Egypt." — Poole's Horce Egypticce, pt. ii. sec. iii. 



122 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



remains of his reign, which have been found at Abydos, 
are of exquisite beauty. Egyptian art had attained, per- 
haps, at that period its highest perfection. The tombs of 
his princes and courtiers, especially of one amongst them, 
to which we shall presently allude, appear to have sur- 
passed, both in dimensions and in beauty of execution, 
those of the famous 12th dynasty, to which the great 
Sesostris (Sesertesen I.) belonged, and whose rival capital 
was the famous city of Thebes. The following reasons 
show conclusively, as it appears to us, that this Apo- 
phis was the veritable Pharaoh who advanced Joseph to 
the place of second ruler in the kingdom of Egypt. 

(1.) There seems to have been a very general agree- 
ment amongst the Greek writers that Apophis was the 
king who befriended Joseph. SynceUus says, it is ad- 
mitted by all ; and specifies that " in the fourth year of 
his reign Joseph is said to have come into Egypt, and in 
his seventeenth to have been advanced to the highest 
honours." 1 And the chronological agreement between 
the reign of Apophis, as set forth in Manetho, together 
with what is said in Scripture respecting the time of 
Joseph, confirms this view. 

(2.) When Joseph was raised to powder, it is said in 
Scripture that " Pharaoh called his name Zaphnath- 
paanedh ; and he gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter 
of Poti-pherah, priest of On." 2 Several interpretations 
have been offered for the Egyptian name of Joseph. In 
the margin of our English Bible it is rendered, " A 
revealer of secrets." Eosellini interprets it to mean, 
"Saviour of the age;" Gesenius and others, "Sustainer 
of the age ; " and Cory considers it to refer to the fabu- 
lous Phoenix, or Hermes. Osburn more correctly reads it 
from the hieroglyphic language as " Tsaphnath-Pheh- 
nuk," and which signifies, "One with Keith, the god- 



Syncel. p. 104. b. 



2 Genesis, xli. 45. 



JOSEPH'S PATKON IN EGYPT. 



123 



cless of wisdom — lie who flees from adultery," — the in- 
terpretation of the first word being very apposite to 
Pharaoh's address to Joseph, " There is none so discreet 
and wise as thou," just before giving him his Egyptian 
name ; and that of the second accords with the well- 
known story of Joseph's purity. 1 The name of Joseph's 
first master was Potiphar, and his subsequent father-in- 
law was called Potipherah. Both are derived from the 
Egyptian word pteophre, signifying "the sun worshipper." 
Potiphera was the chief priest or prince of On, which the 
LXX. translates as 'HXioVoX^, the city of the Sun, one of 
the three chief cities of Egypt 2 , where justice was admi- 
nistered, and which at that time, in all probability, formed 
the chief residence of Pharaoh Apophis and his court. 
The name of Asenath, who was given him to wife, was 
long ago identified by Champolhon, and signifies, "she 
who sees Neith," the goddess of wisdom ; an appropriate 
title for the spouse of him who was acknowledged by the 
king to be wiser than all his subjects. 

(3.) There is a well-known monumental painting which, 
notwithstanding all that has been said against it, may 
possibly refer to the arrival of the family of Jacob in 
Egypt. At Benee-Hasan, on the Nile, about 100 miles 
north of Thebes, there has been discovered the tomb of 



1 An hieratic MS. belonging to Mrs. Daubeny of London, and trans- 
lated by De Ronge, has proved to be a romance of the time of Sethos II., 
the last king of the 19th dynasty, founded upon the lives of two 
brothers, who are represented as feeders of cattle. The younger bro- 
ther has an adventure with his elder brother's wife, which Osburn 
declares is u identical in every particular with Joseph's adventure with 
the wife of Potiphar." If so, as it must have been written five or six 
centuries after the occurrence to which it is supposed to refer, it 
would bear the same relative proportion in chronology to Sir Walter 
Scott's romance of Ivanhoe, in which another descendant of Abraham 
forms a prominent feature in the work. 

2 " Heliopolis, Thebes, and Memphis."— DzW?. Sic. lib. i. ch. vi. 



124 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



JSTevotp, an officer of high rank under Sesertesen II. On 
this tomb there is a representation of an occurrence in 
the sixth year of that monarch, in which two Egyptians 
are presenting to their master a party of strangers of a 
race called " Mes-stem ? " or " Mes-strem," consisting of ten 
males, four females, with two children on a donkey, and 
a lad bearing a spear. The inscription calls them " The 
great foreign prisoners ; " and the hieroglyphic figures, 
thirty-seven, seem to indicate the whole number, of which 
the seventeen painted only formed a part. No one who 
has seen the magnificent work of Lepsius \ which has 
been published at the expense and by the liberality of 
the Prussian government, in which the paintings on the 
Egyptian monuments are copied with extreme fidelity, 
can for a moment doubt that these strangers bear on their 
features the strongly-marked characteristics of the Jewish 
race, so well known throughout the world. The force of 
this argument seems to be irresistible. When, moreover, 
we find, according to our chronological arrangement of the 
rival sovereignties of Upper and Lower Egypt, that Seser- 
tesen II. was ruling at Thebes when Pharaoh Apophis was 
at the commencement of his long; reign, we think this 
remarkable painting may refer to the arrival of the family 
of Jacob hi Egypt. Though called " prisoners," they are 
not represented in the guise of prisoners, but armed and 
at hberty, which would seem to intimate that they were 
an honorary deputation from Lower Egypt, to an officer 
of the rival dynasty in the Upper country, during an 
interval in the civil war. This may account for their 
being caUed Mes-stem or Mestrem, and not Jews or Israel- 
ites, as they might be regarded by the inhabitants of 
Upper Egypt as belonging to the Lower country ; and 



1 Denkniaeler axis Egypten und iEthiopien, Band v. Abth. ii. 
Bl. 131. 



JOSEPH TICEEOY OF EGYPT. 



125 



Josephus says, " We call Egypt Mestre, and the Egyptians 
Mestreans." 1 

(4.) Scripture records a noticeable fact which affords a 
clue to the time of Joseph's viceroyalty in Egypt. In 
consequence of the great famine which then desolated 
Egypt, and which caused the people to offer their land to 
Joseph in return for that bread which he had provided 
in anticipation of the distress he was gifted to foresee, it 
is said, " Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pha- 
raoh ; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because 
the famine prevailed over them ; so the land became 
Pharaoh's : only the land of the priests bought he not ; 
for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, 
and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them ; 
wherefore they sold not their lands." 2 We quote from 
the work of a distinguished Egyptologer, to which we 
have had frequent occasion to refer in confirmation of the 
accordance between Revelation and Science (in the read- 
ing and understanding of the hieroglyphics), on the 
political change which ensued in consequence of the seven 
years' famine in Egypt. " The monumental proofs," says 
Mr. Osburn, " of the occurrence of this modification in 
the social condition of Egypt are just as striking as any 
of those which have engaged us. The tombs of the eras 
that follow that of Apophis bear unequivocal testimony 
to a great political change having taken place hi the con- 
dition of the inhabitants of Egypt at this period, when 
we compare them with those of the preceding epochs. In 
old Egypt scarcely an act of any Pharaoh is recorded in 
the tombs of his subjects. Xor does his name appear at 
all, save in the names of them estates, and sometimes in 
then own names. But in the tombs of the new kingdom, 
or that of the times that followed Joseph, all this is re- 



1 Antici. Jud. i. v. 2. 



2 Genesis, xlvii. 20—22. 



126 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



versed. There is scarcely a tomb of any importance, the 
principal subject of which is not some act of service or 
devotion performed by the excavator to the reigning 
Pharaoh. We shall have abundant opportunities, in the 
course of the inquiry before us, of showing the reality of 
this remarkable change, the cause of which we so plainly 
discover in the legislation of Joseph. Nor is this differ- 
ence confined to the secular princes of Egypt only. . . . 
We found the priest's office in old Egypt to be a mere 
appendage to the secular functions of the princes and 
nobles, performed invariably, in the cases where the per- 
formance is depicted, by proxy and by the hands of 
menials and dependents. The contrast to this presented by 
the monuments of the later epoch is marvellously perfect. 
The priest has risen greatly in authority and importance 
in the state. His office becomes more and more exclusive 
and hereditary, until at length he ascends the throne of 
the Pharaohs, and rules Egypt by a dynasty (the 21st) of 
Priest-kings. For all this the inspired narrative gives us 
the amply-sufficient cause in the forbearance of Apophis 
to exact payment for corn supplied to the temples during 
the famine. . . . We find from Diodorus that the tripar- 
tite division of the soil, so clearly implied in the Scrip- 
ture account of the reforms of Joseph, was in full force 
at the time of his visit to Egypt. . . . The existence of 
the same proprietorship of the soil is just as plainly 
assumed in the Eosetta 1 inscription, where the land of 
the priests is exempted from the taxes imposed on the rest 
of Egypt. Thus clearly does the Greek tradition testify 
to the reality of the arrangement specified in the sacred 

1 On the Rosetta stone now in the British Museum we read that 
"Ptolemy Epiphanes ordered that the revenues of the temples, and the 
annual contributions to them in corn and money, should remain every- 
where as usual .... and with respect to the priests, that they should 
pay nothing more for the completion of their order than they had paid 
to the first year of his father." — Greek Inscrip. lines 14 and 16, 



TIME OF THE GREAT FAMINE IN EGYPT, 127 

text, to the effect of which, on society, the preceding and 
following monuments bear evidence just as unequivocal." 1 
If this argument be worth anything, and we believe it 
to be of great importance in confirmation of the harmony 
which exists between Egyptian history as deducible from 
the hieroglyphic monuments and the Scripture record, it 
amply refutes the erroneous chronology of Bunsen, who 
places the viceroyalty of Joseph about 1,000 years before 
it really took place. 

(5.) We have now to consider a matter of still greater 
importance in deciding on the chronological dispute be- 
tween the language of Scripture and the theories of 
Bunsen. The latter lays very great stress upon what he 
considers confirmatory of his own system, and it behoves 
us to examine with care the remarkable statement to 
which he calls public attention. Speaking of the fact 
and the time of Joseph being viceroy of Egypt, Bunsen 
observes, " Joseph might just as well have been made 
vicegerent by the second or third, as by the first Sesor- 
tosis (Sesertesen). The question is settled, however, in 
favour of the first by a very unexpected and singular dis- 
covery. There is authentic proof that in his reign a 
terrible famine raged in Egypt. We are indebted to Birch 
for this unforeseen confirmation and more accurate deter- 
mination of the synchronism of Joseph and the first 
Sesortosis, by deciphering a remarkable tomb inscription 
of the lieutenant of Amenemha (co-regent with Seser- 
tesen I.), which was published in the great work of the 
Prussian expedition. The person entombed states that he 
was governor of a district in Upper Egypt under the 
above king, and is made to say, — : 

" 4 When in the time of Sesortosis I. the great famine 
prevailed in all the other districts of Egypt, there ivas 
corn in mine! 



1 Monumental History of Egypt, vol. ii. p. 104 — 107. 



128 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



" Nobody would venture to build up a synchronism 
upon such a notice as this ; but admitting that Joseph was 
vicegerent of one of the three Sesortosidse, and that he 
owed his power and consideration to his foresight in pro- 
viding against the seven years of scarcity, no one will 
contend that such a notice is not deserving of very great 
attention, and it must turn the scale in favour of Sesor- 
tosis I. But the more I think over the development and 
chronology of Egypt, the more convinced I am that the 
juxtaposition of these two personages is certain and incon- 
trovertible. The proof is completed by the present 
restoration of the Jewish chronology in the periods be- 
tween Abraham and the immigration of Jacob, and from 
thence to the Exodus, as the sequel will show." 1 

Now, we are prepared to show upon other testimony 
beside that of Scripture that the learned Baron is as wrong 
in his inference respecting this Egyptian famine as he is 
in his chronology concerning the duration of the Israelites 
in Egypt. We have seen that he contends for 1435 years 
as the interval between Abraham and Moses, in place of 
430 years, which the Sacred Eecord so distinctly affirms. 
Even Dr. Williams can hardly receive Bunsen's specula- 
tions on this subject, as he says, " The idea of bringing 
Abraham into Egypt as early as 2876 B.C. is one of our 
authors most doubtful points, and may seem hardly tenable. 
But he wanted time for the growth of Jacob's family into 
a people of two millions, and he felt bound to place 
Joseph under a native Pharaoh, therefore before the 
Shepherd Kings. He also contends that Abraham's hori- 
zon in Asia is antecedent to the first Median conquest of 
Babylon in 2234. A famine, conveniently mentioned 
under the 12th dynasty of Egypt, completes his proof." 2 

1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. p. 334. 

2 Essays and Reviews, pp. 57, 58. 



A GREAT FAMINE IN EGYPT. 



129 



While lamenting the spirit in which Dr. Williams 
appears to notice this brilliant discovery of Birch, though 
erroneously applied by Bunsen, let ns inquire how far 
this " conveniently mentioned " famine is a proof of 
the existence of Joseph in Egypt, and of its referring 
to the seven years' famine which he was enabled to 
foretell. We observe, first of all, that the hieroglyphic 
record specifies that the famine in the time of Seser- 
tesen I. did not extend to a certain district in Upper 
Egypt, though prevailing in all other parts of the coun- 
try. Now, what saith Scripture respecting Jhe famine 
which occurred when Joseph was the viceroy of Pharaoh, 
and when he had laid up corn for the people at On (Helio- 
polis), one of the chief cities of Lower Egypt ? " And 
the seven years of dearth began to come according as 
Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but 
in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And the 
famine was over all the face of the earth. And all coun- 
tries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn ; because 
that the famine was so sore in all lands." 1 No two 
records can be more unlike, and it is surprising- that so 
acute a reasoner as Bunsen could have discovered, or sup- 
posed, in the one any reference to the other. It affords a 
fresh instance of how easily men — even German rational- 
ists — will jump at a hasty conclusion in support of a 
wrong and indefensible theory. For without laying any 
stress on the proof which has been already adduced, that 
the Pharaoh under whom Joseph ruled Egypt was named 
Apophis, and not Sesertesen I., and that the latter preceded 
the former by a full century (Bunsen's system requires 
1000 years), or that Lower Egypt was the locality where 
the corn had been carefully preserved, by Joseph's orders, 
for the use of the people, instead of there being corn in 



1 Genesis, xli. 54, 56. 



130 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



a district of Upper Egypt, as was the case in the time of 
the great famine to which the hieroglyphic inscription 
refers, it is certain, from the Scripture record, that the 
seven years of famine was universal, not merely in Upper 
Egypt, but throughout Asia as well as in Africa, wherever 
man was to be found. The great famine alluded to in the 
hieroglyphic inscription may refer to another one re- 
corded in Scripture, and we think very probably it does, 
as it is said to have occurred in the time of Sesertesen I., 
whose reign synchronises with what took place in the 
time of Isaac. We read in Scripture, "There was a 
famine in the land (of Canaan) beside the first famine that 
was in the days of Abraham," which we may conclude 
was a very severe one in Egypt as well as in Canaan, for 
it is added, " The Lord appeared unto Isaac and said, 
Go not down into Egypt, but dwell in the land which I 
shall tell thee of." 1 This famine appears to have occurred 
about the 105th year of the call of Abraham, when Jacob 
was fourscore years old, and Jacob and Esau had come to 
man's estate, which would answer according to the Bible 
chronology, B. c. 1910. And as the reign of Sesertesen I. 
preceded that of Apophis by about 100 years, and Joseph's 
rule in Egypt is dated B. c. 1800, we find the great famine 
which is recorded as having happened in his reign syn- 
chronises with the time mentioned in Scripture when 
Isaac was forbidden to go to Egypt, doubtless on account 
of the severity of the famine which then prevailed. In 
addition to this we have independent testimony of the 
fact of a severe famine having occurred in the eastern 
extremity of Asia at that, period, and which we believe 
fully confirms the accuracy of the sacred record. In the 
Chinese annals it is related that, " In the beginning of 
the reign of the Emperor Ching-tang, the founder of the 



Genesis, xxvi. 1, 2. 



THE GEEAT FAMINE IN CHINA. 



131 



second dynasty in China, " there happened a drought and 
famine all over the empire, which lasted seven years, in 
which time no rain had fallen." 1 The reign of Ching-tang 
commenced, according to Martinius and Couplet, B. c. 1766, 
and the seven years' famine in Egypt, according to our 
conjectural estimate of Scripture chronology, ended B. c. 
1795. If we were certain that these two dates were cor- 
rect, it would prove that the famines thus recorded in 
Scripture and the Chinese annals referred to different 
events. But inasmuch as we are not absolutely certain of 
the Scripture chronology within a few years, on account 
of being in a measure compelled to make a conjecture 
on one or two periods in the interval between the Exode 
and the building of Solomon's Temple, which we shall 
have presently to consider, and much less so of the exact- 
ness of the chronology of Martinius and Couplet, as 
deduced from the Chinese annals, we think, considering 
that the duration of the famine in both countries having 
been exactly seven years, and that the Scripture record 
particularly specifies it was not confined to Egypt or 
Africa, but was " in all lands," and " over all the face 
of the earth," we may fairly conclude that they both 
refer to the same event. If so, it is not only a remark- 
able testimony to the truth and accuracy of Biblical 
history, but also completely subversive of the extraordi- 
nary system of chronology which Bunsen has thought fit 
to adopt. 

(6.) The discovery of Joseph's tomb affords another 
clue to the time of the existence of the Israelites in 
Egypt. We read that Joseph before his death " took an 
oath of the children of Israel ; saying, God will surely 



1 Jackson's Cliron. Antiq. vol. ii. p. 455. Analysis of the History 
and Chronology of the Emperors of China, from Martinius, Couplet, 
and Du Halde. 

k 2 



132 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE, 



visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. 
So Joseph died, being 110 years old : and they embalmed 
him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." 1 In this state 
the body of Joseph must have remained 144 years, as he 
became viceroy at the age of thirty, in the 206th year of the 
call, and 2 06 + 80 to the time of his death -f 144 to that of the 
Exode, complete the number of 430 years. It is natural 
to conclude that during that prolonged period of nearly 
a century and a half the immense blessings which Joseph 
had bestowed upon Egypt would have been gratefully 
commemorated by the reigning dynasty and the people 
with a magnificent tomb ; especially as it was the custom 
of the Egyptians to erect their sepulchres during life, as 
we do our houses, preparatory to their subsequently 
becoming receptacles for the dead. There are still in 
existence at Sakkara, opposite Memphis, in Lower Egypt, 
the ruins of the tomb of a distinguished personage, whose 
name in hieroglyphics accords with that of Joseph. It is 
close in the vicinity of the largest pyramid 2 of the group, 
which Osburn considers to have been the tomb of Apo- 
phis, and his father Meris. Another pyramid of this 
group bears the significant title of Mustabet el Farun, 
" the throne of Pharaoh." On the relief of the tomb 
referred to, the names and titles of Joseph appear in 
great beauty, as may be seen in the accurate copies 
of Lepsius' magnificent work. 3 The name is written in 
hieroglyphics ei-tsuph, signifying " he came to save." The 
title under which Joseph's power was inaugurated, as we 



1 Genesis, 1. 25, 26. 

2 It is curious to find an allusion in the Book of Job to these royal 
sepulchres. " Then had I been at rest," says Job, " with kings and 
counsellors of the earth, which build desolate places (fTD-in Pyra- 
mids, probably a Semitic version of an Egyptian word) for themselves." 
Job, iii. 11. 

3 Denkmaeler, No. 15, Sakkarah Abt. ii. Bl. 101. 



THE PHARAOH WHICH KNEW NOT JOSEPH. 133 

read in the book of Genesis, by the people crying, Ab- 
rech, "Bow the knee," appears likewise on the tomb, 
under the hieroglyphic tib-resh, signifying " royal priest 
and prince." Amongst other titles mentioned, there is 
one peculiarly suitable to both the person and office of 
Joseph. He is called " Director of the granaries of the 
chiefs of both Egypts." We have thus monumental evi- 
dence of the existence of Joseph in Egypt, honoured by 
the king and people to whom he had proved himself so 
great a benefactor, and in accordance with both the his- 
tory and chronology set forth in Scripture. 

(7.) One more synchronism must be noticed in confir- 
mation of the agreement between the Bible and the hiero- 
glyphic inscriptions. We read in the book of Exodus, 
that after the death of Joseph and his brethren, and all 
that generation, " there arose up a new king over Egypt, 
whieh knew not Joseph." 1 The time of Joseph's death 
has already been computed. It occurred 144 years 
before the Exode, which we place b. c. 1585. The date 
of his death would therefore be 1585+144=1729 b. c. 
Moses was born eighty years before the Exode. The 
interval between the death of Joseph and the birth of 
Moses would consequently be sixty-four years, during 
which time the new king appeared, "which knew not 
Joseph." We are not able to compute to a year when 
this took place, as it is not stated in Scripture to have 
occurred until " all the generation of Joseph" were dead, 
as well as himself, which time is not specially mentioned. 
We may conclude that it took place within a very few 
years after Joseph's death, as he was the youngest but 
one of Jacob's large family, and himself lived to the age 
of 110 years. Levi, who was ten years older than 



1 Exodus, i. 6, 8. 

K 3 



134 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Joseph, as may be easily computed, attained the age of 
137 years 1 ; consequently he did not die until seventeen 
years after Joseph, and as his age is the only one of 
Joseph's generation which is specially mentioned in Scrip- 
ture, we may fairly infer that Levi was the last of that 
generation, which died before the rise of the new dynasty. 
This would give about 127 years before the Exode, and 
must be dated, according to our interpretation of Bible 
chronology, B. c. 1712. 

Let us now consider the amount of evidence we have 
from the monuments in confirmation of Scripture history 
respecting the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt. The 
" new king that knew not Joseph" is clearly a record of a 
very important event in the history of Egypt. Josephus, 
who had better authority for what he wrote than we have 
now, from Manetho's History and the Temple records 
being then in existence, says " the Egyptians having in 
length of time forgotten the benefits they had received 
from Joseph, particularly the crown being now come 
into another family, ill-treated the Israelites." 2 That the 
rise of this new king or family refers to none other than 
Amosis, the chief of the famous 18th dynasty, who 
captured Memphis, and put an end to the civil war which 
had so long raged between the kings of Upper and Lower 
Egypt, just as Henry VII. of England terminated the Wars 
of the Roses at the battle of Bos worth, we are fully per- 
suaded, as the historical and chronological proofs of this 
may be seen in a twofold way by reckoning both back- 
wards and forwards. We find three kings reigning in 
Lower Egypt after Apophis, the patron of Joseph, and 
before Memphis was lost to that dynasty. Melaneris, the 
son of Apophis, a great and magnificent monarch, whom 



1 Exodus, vi. 16. 



2 Antiq. ii. ix. § 1. 



THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. 



135 



doubtless Joseph continued to serve with the same success 
as he had served his father. Jannes, or Unas, apparently 
of another family, at all events not the son of Melaneris, 
succeeded. A cartouch at Hamamat is the only hiero- 
glyphic record of his name ; and the tomb of one of his 
princes is still found at Sakkara. He was succeeded by 
his son Asses, whose monumental fame is equally slight, 
and in whose reign Memphis was lost, and the dynasty 
came to an end. Manetho relates that, " In his reign a 
king of Upper Egpyt, named Alisphragmuthosis (Amosis) 
confederated with other princes of Egypt, drove them out 
of Memphis, and shut them up in a place called Avaris ; 
and eventually expelled them from Egypt." 1 This ac- 
cords with the statement in Scripture, that a new king or 
dynasty had obtained power in Lower Egypt, where the 
Israelites had been so long located, " who knew not 
Joseph." The three intervening reigns between Apophis 
and the capture of Memphis by Amosis, would naturally 
agree with the ninety-seven years according to Scripture 
between the viceroy alty of Joseph and the death of his 
brethren and all that generation. According to our com- 
putation of the time of the death of Levi, the last survivor 
of that generation, we have 127 years left for the re- 
mainder of the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt. The chrono- 
logy would stand thus : 





Year of the call 




Events. 


of Abraham. 


B.C. 


Joseph made viceroy of Egypt at 30 








206 


1809 




286 


1729 


Levi died 17 years later, at 137 . . . 


303 


1712 


The new king which knew not Joseph 


303 


1712 




350 


1665 


The Exode 


430 


1585 



Josephus contr. Ap. i. § 15. 
k 4 



136 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



The other prominent events of the whole period may 
be thus chronicled : 



Events. 


Year of call. 


B C. 


Call of Abraham 


1 


2015 


Descent of the patriarchs to Egypt in 




the second year of the famine . 


215 


1800 


The death of all that generation 


303 


1712 


Interval of 127 years. 






The Exode 


430 


1585 


Consider now the evidence we 


have from Manetho and 



the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the sojourn of the Israelites 
in Egypt during those 127 years, and the name of the 
Pharaoh by whom they were released at the appointed 
time. Even in this period of Egyptian history, which 
commences with the famous 18th dynasty, the dif- 
ferences, variations, and contradictions of such distin- 
guished authors as Josephus, Eusebius, and Africanus, in 
ancient times, and then" still more eminent followers of 
modern times, such as ChampoUion, Bosellini, Wilkinson, 
Birch, Osburn, Sharpe, Poole, Felix, Bunsen, Lepsius, 
and De Eonge, whether in regard to the exact number of 
sovereigns during these 127 years, or the order of their 
reigns, or the- century in which they lived, are so patent 
as to make it a matter of very serious difficulty to show 
the harmony which really exists between the historical 
records of Egypt and the statements in Scripture. By 
comparing the Greek lists with the monuments we may 
infer as most probable that the order of the first seven 
kings of the 18th dynasty would stand as follows : 

1. Amosis. 5. Tuthmosis III. 

2. Amenophis I. 6. Amenophis II. 

3. Tuthmosis I. 7. Tuthmosis IV. 

4. Tuthmosis II. 

No dependence can be placed upon the exact number 
of years to be allotted to each separate reign, on account 
of the variation in the Greek lists. And, though twenty- 
five years are generally allotted to the reign of the 



THE PHARAOH WHICH KNEW NOT JOSEPH. 137 

Amosis, the chief of the dynasty, it is of no use in our com- 
putation of the 127 years, because we know not in what 
year of his reign the capture of Memphis and the over- 
throw of the rival dynasty was effected. The fact of 
Africanus omitting to notice the years of his reign would 
seem to imply that it was one of the last acts of his life. 
And the interval between the death of Amosis and the 
death of Tuthmosis IV. (the Pharaoh who, we believe, 
was drowned in the Eed Sea,) is sufficiently near accord- 
ing to the Greek lists to satisfy us of its synchronism 
with the required 127 years. All the assistance which 
the monuments afford us respecting the length of any in- 
dividual reigns of these seven sovereigns is the discovery 
of twenty-two years belonging to Amosis, twenty-seven to 
Tuthmosis III., and seven to Tuthmosis IV. Bunsen 
computes 122 years as the interval between the death of 
Amosis and Tuthmosis IV. ; and supposing Amosis had 
captured Memphis five years previous to his death, this 
would harmonise with the numbers required according to 
Scripture chronology 1 ; but he considers that Amosis 
reigned twenty-five years after the capture of Memphis. 
An inscription, explained by Eosellini (Monum. Storici i. 
195), rather favours the opinion, though we admit it is 
not certain, that it must have occurred towards the close 
of his reign, as a stile, hewn out of the rock at Mokattam, 
near Cairo, states that "in the 22nd year of the reign of 
Amosis, the quarries were opened for the restoration of 
the temples at Memphis and the temple of Amnion at 
Thebes ;" and if his conquest of Lower Egypt had taken 
place at the commencement of his reign, it is not likely he 
would have delayed tw r enty-two years before attempting 
the restoration of those sacred edifices which it must have 
been his interest at once to have repaired. 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. p. 109. 



138 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



There has also been a remarkable discovery made by 
Mr. Birch, of the British Museum, respecting the interval 
between Tuthmosis III. and Tuthmosis IV., which would 
necessarily refer to the reign of Amenophis II. Among 
the historical notices on the Karnak obelisk, which now 
stands in the Piazza Laterana at Borne, the following 
chronological fact is recorded ; that " after the death of 
Tuthmosis III., the obelisk was thirty -five years in the 
hands of the workmen till the reign of Tuthmosis IV." It 
is not stated in what year of Tuthmosis IV., but we may 
conclude it remained until the fourth or fifth of his short 
reign, as all the chroniclers of Manetho agree in allotting 
thirty-one years to the reign of Amenophis II. , though, 
strange to say, they make him the successor, instead of 
the predecessor of Tuthmosis IV., as he must have been, 
since he was his father. What little evidence, therefore, 
we have from the monuments respecting the chronology 
of this period of Egyptian history, harmonises with what 
is deducible from Scripture, as the interval between the 
" new king which knew not Joseph," and the Exode of 
the children of Israel. 

We must notice in addition the harmony which exists 
at this period of history, by comparing the incidents men- 
tioned in Scripture, with the fragments that have been 
transmitted to us, either by the Greek writers, or with 
what has been discovered on the monuments. 

(1.) In the Alexandrian Chronicle, the Pharaoh, under 
whom Moses was brought up, after having been preserved 
by his daughter, is called Kenebron, which obviously 
refers to the name of the second king of the 18th 
dynasty, the son of Amosis. The prenomen, or name in 
Lower Egypt of Amenophis I., the successor of Amosis, 
reads Chrp-k-ra, i. e. " he who consecrates his person to 
the sun." Chebron, or Kenebron, is the Hellenized version 
of this prenomen, which with the nomen in full, Chebron 



pharaoh's daughter. 



139 



Amenophis is found on a pair of sandals now in the Berlin 
Museum. A fine picture in stucco of this Pharaoh and 
his mother, was taken from a tomb at Gourmon, the 
burial-place of Thebes, which is now in the same museum. 
Lepsius' great work contains a beautiful representation of 
this painting, which has the names of Chebron and his 
mother Amosis-nfr-atri, in the usual cartouches. The 
Greek lists make two sovereigns out of this name, which 
the hieroglyphics confine to one ; but the chief historical 
import of the name, is to notice the connection which 
some of these writers, such as the author of the Alex- 
andrian Chronicle, make between the time of Chebron and 
the youth of Moses, which would thus bring the reign of 
the former within eighty years of the Exode. 

(2.) Between the reigns of Chebron, Amenophis I., and 
his successor and kinsman Tuthmosis I., a regency took 
place, as discovered from the monuments ; when Amessis, 
as she is called by Manetho, or Set-amen, as read in 
hieroglyphics by Lepsius, the daughter of Amosis, governed 
either in her own right, or in behalf of her younger rela- 
tion. 1 On an obelisk erected by her at Thebes, and 
which is one of the most splendid monuments of the 
country, she bears amongst other titles such as " royal 
wife," " lady of both countries," " great royal sister," the 
significant one of "Pharaoh's daughter," 2 the same which 
she is so repeatedly called by Moses. The mention in 
the Epistle to the Hebrews of " Moses, when he was come 
to years, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's 



1 English history affords something parallel to this difficulty about 
the non-recognition in the Greek lists of Set- Am en, " the daughter of 
Pharaoh," as Queen Regent. The empress Matilda, the daughter of 
Henry I., rightly conveyed the throne to her son Henry Plantagenet, 
and exercised regal power at one time during the interval, though the 
reign of Stephen is the only one recognised in English history. 

2 Rosellini, Monum. Stor. t. iii. pt. i. p. 158. 



140 



REVELATION" AND SCIENCE. 



daughter," 1 seems to show that the daughter of Amosis, 
and successor of Chebron, Amenophis I., not having 
children of her own, adopted Moses, after she had pre- 
served him from the effects of her father's cruel edict, — 
which required the destruction of all the male children of 
Israel, and that in consequence of his refusal the throne 
passed to Tuthmosis I., who, though generally considered 
as a younger brother of Amenophis L, never appears on 
the monuments as the son of Amosis, and was probably 
only a near kinsman. Josephus mentions that when 
" Pharaoh's daughter," whom he calls Thermuthis, pre- 
sented Moses to her father, " she thought to make him 
her father's successor, if it should please God she should 
have no legitimate child of her own ;" 2 and that one of 
the priests, on seeing the infant, forewarned the king that 
by his instrumentality the kingdom would be brought 
low, and earnestly recommended his destruction, which 
was prevented by the interposition of Pharaoh's daughter. 
The notice in Scripture of Moses being " learned in all 
the wisdom of the Egyptians," can only be accounted for 
on the supposition that his adopted mother was really a 
queen regent of Egypt, who had power to compel a 
jealous priesthood to initiate her supposed heir in the 
science of the times. Moreover, it is said that Moses, 
during that period of his life, was " mighty in words and 
deeds" 8 which Josephus explains by recording his success 
as a general of the Egyptian army in the war against 
the neighbouring country of Ethiopia. 4 Irenseus, who 

1 Hebrews, xi. 24. 

2 Antiq. n. ix. § 7. 

3 Acts, vii. 22. 

4 Antiq. n. x. § 2. Josephus gives a curious story of Moses' 
"mighty deeds 1 ' in Ethiopia, and the way by which he obtained an 
Ethiopian princess as his wife after his conquest of the country ; but it 
accords with the statement in Scripture, that " Moses married an 
Ethiopian woman." — Numbers, xii. 1. 



JEWS MAKING BRICKS IN EGYPT. 



141 



flourished in the century following Josephus, speaks like- 
wise of the war which Moses waged against the Ethio- 
pians, when commanding the army of the reigning 
Pharaoh. 1 This seems to be confirmed by an inscription 
on one of the obelisks at Karnak, erected by Tuthmosis . 
I., who succeeded Chebron Amenophis I., according to 
Manetho, and who must have been the reigning Pharaoh 
during the early part of Moses' life before he retired to 
Midian, where Tuthmosis I. 2 is styled, amongst other 
titles, " Conqueror of the Ninebows" referring to Libya, 
the Coptic name of which is Na-pa-ut, " The Ninebows." 
Lybia and Ethiopia may be understood in the same sense 
as England and Scotland form together a country known 
as Great Britain. But further than this, Birch, in his 
most valuable account of the statistical tablet of Karnak, 
has discovered a reference to a captain of this period, 
the inscription on whose tomb shows that he served 
under Amenophis I. against the Ethiopians, and in the 
following reign accompanied Tuthmosis I. in his cam- 
paigns to Ethiopia and Naharaina (Mesopotamia), which 
confirms the account which Josephus gives of Moses' 
" mighty acts" being exhibited in his wars with the 
people of that country. 

(3.) At Grournou, near Thebes, there is still standing 
the tomb of one of the nobles of the 6ourt of Thoth- 
mosis III., the son of Tuthmosis I., and brother of the 
second king of the same name. The owner of this tomb 
bears the name of Ros-she-ra, which signifies, " A Prince 
like the Sun." The paintings of this tomb, which are 
given with great fidelity in Lepsius' 3 magnificent work, to 

1 Fragmenta de Perdit. Iren. Tractat. ed. Grabe, p. 347. 

2 Sir G. Wilkinson observes, " The Egyptians evidently overran all 
Ethiopia in the time of the 18th and 19th dynasties." — Rawlinsoris 
Herod, ii. § 110. 

3 Denkmaeler, Abt. iii. Bl. 40. 



142 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



which we have so often referred, afford indisputable 
proof, not only of the Israelites being in Egypt at this 
period of history, but of being forcibly engaged in the 
very occupation to which Scripture informs us they were 
compelled by the jealousy of the Pharaohs of that dynasty 
" which knew not Joseph." 

One of the hieroglyphic inscriptions on this tomb reads, 
" The reception of the tribute of the land brought to the 
king by the captives in person." Another, " The bringing 
of the collections of the unclean of the land of Phenne 
(which is supposed to refer to the Sinaitic peninsula), 
which they bring in unto the footstool of his majesty 
King Thothmosis everliving." A third, " The bringing 
in of the offerings of the unclean races of the two lands of 
Arvad and all the north.'" The races of prisoners are 
represented as engaged in the occupation of making 
bricks, and carefully watched by Egyptian taskmasters. 
One appears to belong to the country of Lower Egypt, 
which people are always distinguished by their red com- 
plexion. The other, of a different colour, and cast of 
features, clearly belong to the Jews. The same degraded 
race is represented everywhere throughout the tomb of 
Ros-she-ra, performing acts of drudgery under the coer- 
cion of taskmasters ; their degradation being further sym- 
bolised by their* torn and patched garments. It is needless 
to remark, how strikingly this accords with the treatment 
which the Israelites received from the dynasty " which 
knew not J oseph," according to the statement of Scripture. 

(4.) The chronology of this period of Egyptian history 
agrees sufficiently well with that of Scripture to convince 
us of our application being correct. Lepsius, who has 
fully discussed the general question of the absolute elates 
on the Egyptian monuments in his " Book of the Kings," 
(pp. 151 — 169), and who appears, as we have seen, to 
ignore Scripture chronology entirely, so that his testi- 



A SHEPHERD EACE IN EGYPT. 143 

mony is in this respect of greater value, has calculated 
from the fragment of a calendar worked into the wall 
of the present quay of Elephantina, grounding his 
computation upon the well-known commencement of 
the last Sothiac cycle B.C. 1322, that the first year of 
the reign of Tuthmosis III. should be placed B.C. 1613. 
Without admitting the exact correctness of this date, as 
it would bring us within thirty years of the true date 
of the Exode, and the obelisk at Eome speaks of thirty- 
five years intervening between Thothmosis III. and 
Thothmosis IV., still it is sufficiently near to adduce it as 
independent testimony in confirmation of the truth and 
accuracy of Scripture chronology. 

(5.) The reign of Amenophis II. the son of Tuth- 
mosis III., presents nothing remarkable in connection 
with the Israelites in Egypt, save that on the dilapi- 
dated remains of a palace at Karnak, there is a repre- 
sentation of the Deity Ameen-Ea, addressing this king, 
in which mention is made of a shepherd race, possibly 
referring to the Jewish people, and promising " that he shall 
restrain them within their own territories" which appears 
to accord with the apprehension of the dynasty " which 
knew not Joseph " respecting that people. Pharaoh is 
represented in Scripture as saying, " Behold the children 
of Israel are more and mightier than we : come on, let 
us deal wisely with them, and so get them out of the 
land." 1 

(6.) The reign of Tuthmosis IV., his son and suc- 
cessor, affords many indications of his being the Pharaoh 
whose dealings with Moses and Aaron are so fully re- 
corded in Scripture, and who was eventually destroyed 
with his army in the Eed Sea. E.g. The statement re- 
specting this Pharaoh's harsh treatment of the Israelites 



1 Exodus, i. 9, 10. 



144 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



in compelling them to " gather straw for themselves," in 
order to complete their required " tale of bricks," is 
singularly confirmed by a remark of Eosellini, that " the 
bricks which are now found in Egypt belonging to the 
period of Tuthmosis IV. have always straw mingled 
with them, although in some of those most carefully 
made it is found in very small quantities." 1 

Tuthmosis IV., whose name in Lower Egypt reads 
mn-chru-ra, " Sun fertile in creations ; " and in Upper 
Egypt tot-ms-sha-u, " born of Thoth of the festivals," is 
the last Pharaoh in whose reign there are any indications 
of the existence of the children of Israel in Egypt, and this 
negative sort of proof, combined with other more positive, 
convinces us that he is none other than the proud king, 
who withstood the power of Jehovah, until finally his 
career was terminated at the Eecl Sea. Osburn iden- 
tifies him with Armais, another sovereign of the same 
dynasty, according to Manetho's list, remarking that such 
confusions in the lists are " sure signs of troublous times 
in Egypt ; " and adding, " we are prepared for the cir- 
cumstance that Armais (who is generally named Tuth- 
mosis IV.) appears from the monuments to have had a 
turbulent reign." 2 Such must have been the case with 
the Pharaoh of the Exode. We have not any monu- 
mental inscriptions to prove the exact length of his reign 
(one has the number vii.), though sufficient to show 
that it was a short one, which also agrees with the in- 
ference from Scripture, as we read, that when " the long 
of Egypt, (Amenophis II. the father of Tuthmosis IV.) 
died, under whom the children of Israel sighed by 
reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry 
came up unto God by reason of their bondage, and God 



1 Eosellini, ii. p. 259. 

2 Monumental History, vol. ii. p. 317. 



THE PHARAOH OF THE EXODE. 



145 



remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and 
with Jacob." 1 Moses prepared to return from Midian 
to Egypt, which return resulted in the Exode. A con- 
spicuous tablet between the paws of that wonderful 
work of art, the great Sphinx of Ghizeh, has an inscrip- 
tion in which there is mention of the first year of Armais, 
and there is another of the seventh year of his reign, 
recorded on a granite rock opposite the island of Philse 
on the Nile, when he was engaged in a war with the 
Phutim. There is a singular circumstance connected 
with this inscription. After the mention of the usual 
boasting titles, it stops short suddenly with the dis- 
junctive particle "then" evidently pointing to defeat and 
disaster, which was the prominent characteristic of this 
Pharaoh's reign. The inference of his being the Pharaoh 
who was drowned in the Eed Sea is farther confirmed 
by the fact, that after the many careful researches of 
modern explorers, no trace has been found of this kings 
tomb in the royal burial-place near Thebes, in which the 
sovereigns of the eighteenth dynasty lie. And this is 
the more remarkable as the tomb of his son and suc- 
cessor Amenophis III., who carried out the measures in 
which his father was engaged, has been discovered. 2 

Another circumstance connected with Tuthmosis IV. 
seems to afford confirmation of his being the Pharaoh 
of the Exode. On the walls of the palace of Luxor 
there is a sculpture, which is given in Lepsius's work, 
representing the birth of a son of this king, whom we 
naturally assume to be his " first-born." His wife, Queen 
Mautmes, who subsequently governed the kingdom dur- 
ing the minority of her son 3 , is receiving a message 



1 Exodus, ii. 24. 

2 Sir G. Wilkinson's Thebes, p. 88. 

3 Sharpe's History of Egypt, vol. i. p. 65. 

L 



146 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



through the god Thoth, that she is to give birth to a 
child. The mother is placed upon a stool, while two 
nurses chafe her hands, and the babe is held up by a 
third. If this be a representation of the birth of the 
eldest son of the Pharaoh of the Exode, as we believe it to 
be, it is certain that this child could not have succeeded his 
father to the kingdom. For, " it came to pass that at 
midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land 
of Egypt, from the first-horn of Pharaoh that sat on his 
throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the 
dungeon." 1 Now, in one of the many very valuable works 
published by Sir G. Wilkinson 2 on the subject of Egypt, 
there is a reference to an elder brother of Amenophis III., 
the son and successor of Tuthmosis IV., whose name 
does not appear in any list of kings, and whose exclusion 
from his rightful inheritance can only be accounted for 
by supposing him to be " the first-born " of Pharaoh's 
children, on whom the dreadful judgment feU ; and if so, 
the infant-hero of the sculpture described above. It is, 
however, right to state what I have learnt from a private 
communication, with which Sir G. Wilkinson has fa- 
voured me, that he is not now prepared to abide by 
his early opinion respecting the supposed relationship 
of this " stranger king " to Amenophis III. The con- 
fusion in the Greek lists, and the different traditions 
respecting Armais (Tuthmosis IV.), although they in- 
crease the difficulty of verifying the true history of his 
reign, nevertheless tend to support the opinion of iden- 
tifying him with the Pharaoh of the Exode. It is clear 
from the monuments that during the reign of Armais 
Egypt underwent severe disasters, and that his successor, 
Amenophis, changed his religion, or rather introduced 
a new deity, viz. that of the Sun, as the substitution 



1 Exodus, xii. 29. 



2 Materia Hieroglyphica, Plate i. 



THE PHARAOH OF THE EXODE. 



147 



of his new name, which reads Bek-en-aten, " the servant 
of the disc of the sun," in place of his old one which 
is everywhere erased, sufficiently discloses. After the 
failure of the Egyptian priests to withstand Moses and 
Aaron, and the heavy judgment upon the nation gene- 
rally, we can readily conceive that nothing would be 
more natural than for the succeeding Pharaoh to try the 
power of some new deity. 

Moreover, the Armenian Chronicle 1 of Eusebius speaks 
of Armais being the same person as Danaus, who was ex- 
pelled from Egypt in the fifth year of his reign by his 
brother ; and that he fled to Greece, where he established 
another kingdom. According to some authors, the ship 
in which Danaus came to Greece was called Armais 2 , the 
first which had ever appeared there. Other authorities 
state that Cecrops was the first who led a colony from 
Egypt to Greece, and established a kingdom. This, 
according to the Parian chronicle, or the Arundehan 
Marbles, as more commonly called, a work of the very 
highest authority, occurred B.C. 1582, and, singular enough, 
answers to within two or three years of the date which 
we have computed from Scripture to be that of the Exode. 
Connecting all these traditionary legends respecting 
Armais' end, we have very strong grounds for assuming 
that he was - indeed the Pharaoh overthrown with his 
mighty host at the Eed Sea. Bunsen, with his usual dis- 
regard of the authority of Moses, denies this, as he 
observes, with surprising confidence, " If there is any 



1 Chron. Canon. Liber Prior, cap. xx. 

2 Sir G-. Wilkinson says, " The flight of Armais was perhaps con- 
founded with that of the ' stranger kings,' who ruled about the close of 
the eighteenth dynasty. Their expulsion appears to agree with the 
story of Danaus leading a colony to Argos, which Armais, flying from 
his brother, could not have done ; and one of the last of their kings 
was Todnh." — Note in RawlinsorCs Herod, ii. § 107. 

L 2 



148 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



historical fact well established, it is this,- — that, however 
great the loss sustained by the Egyptians in horses and 
riders in their hasty pursuit through the foaming waves, 
the Pharaoh himself did not perish." 1 And he gives his 
reason for this extraordinary conclusion. He declares 
" the Exodus must have taken place in the first five or six 
years of Menephthah (B.C. 1320, i. e. nearly three hundred 
years later than it really did). Por he was thirteen years 
out of the country, and a conflict ensued upon his re- 
turn ; " and forming his opinion upon this fatal mistake, 
says, " the readers of a philosophical work or a history 
will not fail to ask for an explanation how it was that a 
king of Egypt, possessing a large army, which a few 
centuries before had made all Asia to tremble, did not 
pursue the Jews still farther, and annihilate them in the 
wilderness?" He then complacently adds, "I hardly 
think they will be satisfied with the simple answer that 
Pharaoh and his host were all overwhelmed in the Eed 
Sea." 2 Of those who approve of Bunsen's fantasies, and the 
liberties which he takes with contemporary history, we 
say, " Probably they will not." But others who believe 
that the language of Scripture has definite meaning, and 
who gladly welcome the discoveries of real science in 
behalf of Eevelation, will assuredly give credence to such 
a statement as this — " And it was told the king of Egypt 
that the people fled : and Pharaoh made ready his chariot, 
and took his people with him — 600 chosen chariots, and 
all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of 
them. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will get me 
honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his 
horsemen. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after 
them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. p. 265. 

2 Ibid. vol. iii. pp. 203, 264. 



PHARAOH DROWNED IX THE RED SEA. 



149 



his chariots, and his horsemen. . . . The Lord overthrew 
the Egyptians in the midst of the sea — there remained not 
so much as one of them. Then sang Moses — The horse and 
his rider hath he thrown into the sea. For the horse of 
Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen 
into the sea." 1 Such are the effects of speculating upon his- 
tory at the expense of truth. Bunsen's system of chrono- 
logy, which places Abraham about nine centuries earlier 
than Scripture does, and detains the Israelites hi Egypt 
for 1,300 years after the descent of Jacob and his sons, 
required him to date the Exode as late as B.C. 1320, 
nearly three centuries after its actual occurrence ; and in 
order to support this impossible theory, he seeks to find 
in Menephthah a king of the nineteenth dynasty, the 
Pharaoh of the Exode ; and supposing that he lived several 
years after his assumed date of the departure of the 
Israelites under Moses, Bunsen endeavours to support his 
opinion by ridiculing the idea of the destruction of 
Pharaoh in the Eed Sea. But more than this, spurning 
alike the history recorded in Scripture and the statements 
of Manetho, on whom he generally relies, he asserts 
that Moses and " his fellow conspirators," as he terms 
them, " quietly made preparations in the peninsula to in- 
sure the success of their vast undertaking," at the same 
time referring to Manetho as having given an account of 
the previous expulsion of the Hyksos races from the ter- 
ritory of Egypt. 2 Those who know what Manetho really 
wrote respecting the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt, 
as transmitted in the works of Josephus, with his anno- 
tations thereon, and compare his confused historical jum- 
ble with the recently discovered fact of the Hyksos period 
being more or less fabulous from beginning to end, cannot 



1 Exodus, xiv. and xv. 

2 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. p. 266. 

l 3 



150 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



fail to perceive the singular testimony which the Temple 
Eecorcls of Egypt afford to the sojourn of the Israelites 
in, as well as their departure from, ■ the country. When 
we find Manetho recording that " the Jews had come into 
Egypt — subdued its inhabitants — remained for a long 
period — revolted under the leadership of one of the 
priests of Heliopolis, called Osarsiph (from Osyris, the god 
of that city, and having subsequently changed his name 
to Moses), who required them upon oath to give up all 
Egyptian customs, and to destroy the sacred animal, and 
not to worship the Egyptian gods — went out of Egypt in 
the reign of Tuthmdsis, and settled in that country which 
is now called Judea, and there built Jerusalem and its 
temple ;" 1 — we believe him because it accords with the 
history of that period written by Moses himself, a contem- 
porary witness and chief actor in the events described. But 
when Manetho jumbles together these events with others 
which he mentions as having happened three centuries 
later, in the reign of the son of Eamesses (Menephthah), 
which Bunsen, with such marked want of discrimination 
accepts as true history, we are content to leave the matter 
in the hands of Josephus, who very properly denounces 
the same as "incredible narrations" and "arrant lies;" 
adding, with regard to the " leprous race," which Mene- 
phthah expelled from Egypt, and which Bunsen refers to 
the Exocle of the Israelites, " that Moses who brought the 
Jews out was not one of that company, but lived many 
generations earlier, I shall endeavour to demonstrate from 
Manetho's own accounts themselves." 2 

We have never heard of but two reasons in favour of 
so late a date for the Exode, which it may be right to 
notice. It has been contended that, as the children of 
Israel were employed by the " new king which knew not 

1 Josephus contr. Ap. i. 26 — 28. 

2 Ibid. § 11. 



EAMESSES IN EGYPT. 



151 



Joseph " to build certain " treasure-cities, Pithom and 
Harnesses" 1 therefore the Exode could not have occurred 
until some time in the reign of the nineteenth dynasty, 
which bore that name from its distinguished founder 
Eamesses L, whose accession Bunsen places B.C. 1413. 
As, however, there are 127 years more to be accounted for 
between that . period and the Exode, it ought to be dated 
B.C. 1286. But Bunsen having adopted the novel idea 
of placing that event in the middle of the reign of Mene- 
phthah, the son of Eamesses II., only reckons that in- 
terval at eighty-three years 2 , as his date for the Exode 
is B.C. 1320, which alone is sufficient to refute the argu- 
ment grounded upon the idea that the treasure city 
Barneses, was called after the first king of that name ; 
for according to Bunsen's chronology the rise of the king 
or dynasty " which knew not Joseph " must be placed 
about forty years later than the time in which the Jews 
were supposed to be so employed. But in truth the 
refutation of such an argument may be placed in a much 
stronger light than even this. For the same word 
Harnesses (the spelling varies in the English version, 
though exactly the same in the Hebrew) is met with 
at the period when Jacob and his sons first went down to 
Egypt ; as we read that " Jacob placed his father and 
his brethren in the land of Harnesses, as Pharaoh com- 
manded." 3 If, therefore, the argument be of any force, 
it would prove that Pharaoh Harnesses must have lived 

1 Exodus, i. 8— 11. 

2 Bunsen in reality reduces these numbers still farther by asserting 
that " the opening remark (Exod. i. 2), i they set over them taskmas- 
ters,' is clearly referred to Eamesses II.," and not to his grandfather, 
Eamesses I., which opinion he endeavours to support, by throwing a 
doubt, as usual, upon a Scriptural statement respecting this period, ob- 
serving, " We can hardly take literally the statement as to the age of 
Moses at the Exodus." — Egypt's Place, ifc. vol. iii. p. 184. 

3 Genesis, xlvii. 11. 

* 4 



152 REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 

before the time of Joseph, which Bunsen places in the 
twenty-eighth century B.C., and which, according to the 
Biblical computation, cannot be placed later than the 
eighteenth century before Christ ; whereas all parties 
are agreed that the dynasty of the Harnesses cannot be 
earlier than the fourteenth century. Therefore, the in- 
ference drawn from the name of Harnesses that the Exode 
must be dated, as Bunsen and others have done, in the 
fourteenth century is destitute of the slightest founda- 
tion. 1 The mistake has originated, probably, in supposing 
that " the treasure city," Harnesses, derived its name from 
the king or dynasty instead of the reverse. The LXX. 
in translating the passage in Exodus i. 11, have intro- 
duced " On, which is Heliopolis" as a third treasure city 
or fortress built by the Israelites. But Jablouski 2 has, 
with good reason, supposed that Harnesses and Heliopolis 
are in reality the same city, for Harnesses in the Egyptian 
tongue signifies, " The field of the Sun," as Heliopolis 
meant " The city of the Sun," and the name would 
therefore include both the territory and its capital, just 
as in modern times the names Naples and Home include 
both. This agrees with what Benjamin of Tudela says 
of his visit to Egypt, that when he came to the fountain 
of Al-shemesh, or the Sun, which is Harnesses, he there 
found the remains of the buildings of our fathers, even 
towers built of brick." 3 Moreover, the testimony of Sir 
G. Wilkinson, that " the first individual called Harnesses 
mentioned on the monuments, was a person of the family 



1 Lepsius, though differing from Bunsen upwards of twelve centuries 
with regard to the duration of the Israelites in Egypt, agrees with him 
in respect to the time of the Exode, and makes the utmost of this argu- 
ment concerning the name of Ramesses. See "Letters from Egypt," by 
Dr. Eichard Lepsius, translated by the Misses Horner, pp. 426, 450. 

2 De Terra Goshen, Dissert. 4, § 8. 

3 Itinerar. p. 120. 



EGYPTIANS IN ASSYRIA. 



153 



of Amosis the first king of the eighteenth dynasty" 1 is 
satisfactory proof that the name Ramesses was known in 
Egypt at the very time that Amosis, " the king who knew 
not Joseph," was compelling the children of Israel to 
build " a treasure city," which was called by that name. 

Another argument has been brought forward against 
the Biblical history and chronology of this period, 
that as there is monumental evidence of the nineteenth 
dynasty, viz. that of the Ramesses, having extended 
their conquests to Palestine and Syria, we must accept 
it as a proof that " no great empire (of the Israelites) 
then existed" 2 in that country, and that consequently 
the Exodus, and the settlement of the Israelites in the 
Land of Promise, could not have taken place until after 
that period. There happens to be far clearer proof of the 
kings of Egypt having extended their conquest as far as 
Assyria in the time of the eighteenth dynasty, than in that 
of the succeeding dynasty, some two or three centuries 
later, as Bunsen's theory requires. E. g. we have before 
noticed the campaign of Tuthmosis I. in Mesopotamia 
(see p. 141); and at Arban on the Khabour Eiver, a 
few miles north of Mneveh, Mr. Layard found some 
Scarabsei engraved with hieroglyphics, having the names 
of Tuthmosis III. and his great grandson Ameno- 
phis III., who records amongst his conquests As-su-ni 
(Assyria), Naharaina (Mesopotamia), Saenkar (Shinar 
or Babylon), and Pattana (Padan-aram, where Laban 
dwelt), with other titles, such as " Lord of the Earth," 
" Sun rising in all lands," referring to his claim to uni- 
versal dominion. 3 Tuthmosis III. was, as we have shown 
from the Egyptian monuments, the Pharaoh who com- 



1 Note in Eawlinson's Herod, ii. § 121. 

2 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. p. 165. 

3 Birch's Note in Layard's Nineveh, p. 281. 



154 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



pelled the Israelites to make bricks without the needful 
supply of straw ; and Amenophis III.'s conquests in 
Assyria, and the land of Canaan, must have occurred 
during the forty years' wandering of the Israelites in the 
Desert, God having thus employed the armies of Egypt 
to lessen the power of the tribes of Canaan previous 
to the children of Israel taking possession of their 
promised inheritance. But admitting the truth of the 
conquests of the Harnesses m Palestine, the inference, 
that the Israelites must have entered the land subse- 
quently, because no great empire could have then 
existed, is not borne out by the historical statements in 
Scripture. For the repeated conquests of the Israelites 
by surrounding tribes during the first 400 years of then 
national existence, and the fact of Jerusalem being 
occupied by the Jebusites until the time of David 1 , shows 
that the Bible does not suppose any " great empire " in 
Syria for several centuries after the Exode. Moreover, 
the evidence we have respecting the Egyptians in Syria 
at this period affords a clue to an historical synchronism 
between the histories of Egypt and Israel, which is of 
some importance. Herodotus mentions that an Egyptian 
king named Sesostris was in the habit of recording on 
pillars his conquests of certain nations, adding, when 
they were easily subdued, " emblems to mark they were 
a nation of women, i. e. un war like and effeminate." 
Herodotus likewise says, that " these pillars have for the 
most part disappeared, but in the part of Syria called 
Palestine, I myself saw them still standing, with the 
writing above-mentioned, and the emblems distinctly 
visible." 2 Manetho, who lived about two centuries after 
the time of Herodotus, mentions the same thing respecting 



1 2 Sam. v. 0, 7. 



2 Herodotus, ii. 102. 10G. 



EFFEMINACY OF THE SYEIAXS. 



155 



Sesostris. 1 Bimsen endeavours to show, and we think 
successfully, that so far from this referring to Sesostris 
(king of the twelfth dynasty according to Manetho, and 
the same as Sesertesen L, who reigned shortly after 
Abraham's visit to Egypt, which would invalidate the 
argument respecting the conquest of Syria being several 
centuries later), it must be understood of Harnesses II. 
the father of Menephthah, whom Bimsen considers to 
be the Pharaoh in whose reign the Israelites quitted 
Egypt. For the stelae seen by Herodotus, who could 
not interpret the hieroglyphic characters, were doubtless 
those which are still extant on a rock near Beyroot at 
the mouth of the river Lycus, engraved by Eamesses II. 
The only inscription now legible is a mere fragment 
containing these words, " Pharaoh the powerful — king 
of kings, Ramesses, to whom life has been given like the 
Sun." 2 On referring to Scripture we find satisfactory 
proof of the effeminacy of some of the tribes or nations 
of Syria at that exact period of history. For in the well- 
known story of Deborah, that famous " mother in Israel," 
when "Jabin was king of Canaan," and Sisera the 
captain of his host, who came " with Ms chariots and 
his multitude against Israel," it is emphatically recorded 
in the Book of Judges, that they were conquered " by the 
hand of a woman." It is likewise added, " So God sub- 
dued on that clay Jabin the king of Canaan before the 
children of Israel." 3 

According to our computation of Biblical chronology, 



1 Eusebius Chron. Can. Liber Prior, cap. xx. 

2 Sir Gardner Wilkinson's Note to Eawlinson's Herodotus in loco. 
The reign of Eamesses II., according to a legible hieroglyph in the 
British Museum, extended over the long period of 66 years, b. c. 1392 
—1326. 

3 Judges, iv. 7, 9, 23. 



156 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



" the forty years' rest," which Israel had after the over- 
throw of Sisera and his host by the hand of Deborah, 
would be dated B.C. 1377 — 1337, and very well syn- 
chronises with the supposition that, in the fourteenth 
century B.C., the Canaanites were an effeminate race, 
whom Harnesses II had easily overthrown, and who 
recorded his conquest of them as such, in a way which 
Herodotus and Manetho impute to an earlier king, of 
whose campaigns in Syria we know nothing, but which 
modern skill by reading the hieroglyphic inscriptions still 
extant shows can be applied to none ether than a 
sovereign who was reigning during that century. We 
do not find any other reasons advanced for contradicting 
the date of the Exode as set forth in Holy Writ ; and 
we must therefore reject, as unfounded and unsupported, 
either by Scripture or the monuments of Egypt, the 
conclusion of Bunsen and Lepsius in placing it so late as 
B.C. 1320. 

§ 7. The duration of the interval between the Exodus 
and the building of the Temple is the concluding chro- 
nological difference between the sacred annalists and 
Bunsen, which it will be necessary to notice, as the latter 
event is placed by him so nearly 1 with our computation of 
Scripture chronology, that we are glad to find ourselves 
at length in accord with this distinguished scholar. 

Bunsen observes, " Our readers may naturally ask : 
What becomes of the chronology between Moses and 



1 Bunsen' s date for the building of the Temple is the same as that of 
Archbishop Usher, viz. b. c. 1014. We compute it four or five years 
higher on account of the years allotted to the several kings of Judah 
from Solomon to Jehoiakim (in whose reign the seventy years' captivity 
in Babylon commenced), being reckoned as complete years, instead of 
current, as by Usher's system we are compelled to do with four reigns, 
in order to obtain a supposed synchronism with some of the kings of 
Israel. 



date of Solomon's temple. 



157 



Solomon ? What are we to do with the Bible dates of 
440, 480, 593 years? The difficulties encountered in 
the first book as to each of the three Biblical dates, has 
proved to us that, if the Jewish chronology between 
Solomon and Moses can be restored at all, it can only be 
done by confronting it with Egyptian history." 1 Of course, 
if Bunsen's date of the Exode, B.C. 1320, be right, and his 
Pharaoh who let the Israelites go (in the beginning of a 
tolerably long reign) be correct, leaving only 300 years, 
in place of nearly six centuries, between that event and 
the building of the Temple, the so-called "Biblical dates" 
of 440, 480, or 593 years, must be one and all wrong. 
But can such be really termed "Biblical dates?" We 
are unable to discover upon what grounds he fixes upon 
the first of 440 years, unless it be the incorrect reading 
of the LXX. ; as certainly there is no authority for such 
a date from the Hebrew. We have proof that the second 
of 480 years is not really any part of the sacred text. 2 
And the third is one of several dates found in our present 
copies of Josephus, which so far vary as to give 592, 
609, 612, and 632 years 3 , for the interval between the 
Exode and the Temple. Seeing, therefore, the manifold 
mistakes which beset Bunsen's system on every side, 
when he attempts to make it harmonise with Scripture 
chronology, we are prepared for the way in which he 
treats the opinion of the early Christian writers, as well as 
of Josephus, who are unanimous in dating the Exocle about 
the middle of the eighteenth dynasty, which was natural, 
considering that such, as we have shown, alike agrees 
with the history on the monuments, with the fragments 
of Manetho, and with the chronology of Scripture. " If," 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. 205. 

2 See remarks on this in Chapter V. 

3 Clinton's Fasti Hell. vol. i. Appendix, p. 311. 



158 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



says Bunsen, " we examine carefully the notion of the 
Fathers, that it took place in the eighteenth dynasty, we shall 
find that it was based simply on two wholly unfounded 
assumptions. One is, that it coincided with the evacua- 
tion of Avaris by the Shepherds. The other assumption 
is, that the middle or beginning of the eighteenth dynasty 
really coincided, or, at least, may by some manoeuvring be 
made to synchronise with the 480th (or 440th) year 
before the building of the Temple, at which date the 
Biblical narrative places the Exodus." 1 Though we do not, 
as we have before remarked, admit that the Bible chrono- 
logy places the Exocle either 480 or 440 years before 
the Exode, we cannot think that Bunsen is justified in 
accusing the advocates of the Usserian chronology of 
" manoeuvring." It is not a suitable word for so distin- 
guished a scholar to make use of towards those with whom 
he is at issue. The difference between 480 years and 566, 
which latter we believe to be the true interval between 
the Exode and the Temple, is not so great as the 300 years 
disagreement which exists between Scripture and Bunsen 
on the time of the Exode. And, as we have shown there 
are unmistakable evidences, both from the monuments 
and Manetho, of the existence of the Israelites in Egypt 
up to the middle of the eighteenth dynasty, we look in 
vain for, and we unhesitatingly challenge Bunsen's fol- 
lowers to show, a single scrap of proof in favour of their 
continuance in Egypt after that period, or during the 300 
years in dispute between us. 

Adopting, as we have done, 566 as the number of 
years between the Exode and the building of the Temple, 
we proceed to consider the authority we have for accept- 
ing the same. Since it is clear that the passage (1 Kings 
vi. 1), in which it is said that Solomon began to build the 



Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. p. 145. 



BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY. 



159 



Temple "in the 480th year after the children of Israel 
were come out of the land of Egypt," is not genuine, and 
it is admitted on all hands that there are two chasms 1 
during that period in the Scriptural account of the Old 
Testament, by which we are prevented from accurately 
determining its duration ; we turn first to the New Tes- 
tament, to see what help is there afforded us in our 
search. St. Paul, in his speech before the rulers of the 
synagogue at Antioch, makes mention of this period, 
which he thus divides ; — 

Ye.irs. 

The Israelites in the Wilderness ... 40 Acts, xviii. 18. 

To the division of the land, not men- 
tioned „ 19. 

Duration of the Judges " about " . . . 450 20. 

Length of Saul's reign 40 „ 21. 

Length of David's reign 40| 2 Sam. v. 5. 

Temple begun in the fourth year of Solo- 
mon 3-^1 Kings, vi. 1. 

Total 574 years. 

We cannot, however, gather anything decisive from this 
computation ; because, in the first place, no time is allotted 
for the division of the lands, which, we gather from Joshua 
xiv. 7, 10, must have amounted to certainly five years, 
and which would raise the period to 579 years ; and in 
the second, as St. Paul says, " about 450 years" for the 
time of the Judges, we are at liberty to lower the period 
to a certain extent. There is likewise another reading of 
this passage, which has the high authority of the Codex 
Alexandrinus, and which reads as follows : — "He divided 

1 Clinton, who leans rather to the longest period given by Josephus, 
says, " The interval between the death of Moses and the first servitude 
may be pretty accurately filled, although the years will be assigned 
upon conjecture, and not upon testimony. . . . We then arrive at a 
second chasm, between the death of Samson and the election of Saul," 
— Fasti Hell. vol. i. App. pp. 303-4. 



160 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



to them their land about 450 years, and after that he 
gave them judges," which renders it more difficult than 
ever to make a chronological computation from such a 
sentence. The traditional number current amongst the 
Jews for this period is one of those adopted by Josephus *, 
viz. 592 years. Bunsen remarks that " the Jews of China 
and Cochin-China are said to adhere to it." 2 But it is 
rather singular, and we venture to say almost suspicious, 
in regard to the reckoning of Josephus for this period, 
that while he quotes from the Tyrian records as an inde- 
pendent testimony to the truth of Scripture, there is hi 
our present copies a very remarkable omission. He ob- 
serves, " that there are public writings among the Tyrians 
kept with great exactness, in which it was recorded, that 
the Temple was built by king Solomon at Jerusalem 143 
years and eight months before the Tyrians built Carthage ; 
and in their annals the building of our Temple is related ; 
for Hiram, the king of Tyre, was the friend of Solomon 
our king, and had such friendship transmitted down to 
him from his forefathers." 3 Now why did Josephus omit 
to give the number of years which the Tyrian records 
mention, as having elapsed during the interval between 
the Exodus and the Temple, unless it be that he found 
they militated against his own computation, and he 
thought it better to be silent upon the subject? Theo- 
philus, bishop of Antioch, who lived in the second century, 
observes, " About the building of the Temple in Judea, 



1 " Solomon began to build the Temple 592 years after the Exoclus 
out of Egypt ; . . . . and from Adam, the first man, until Solomon, 
there were in all 3002 years." — Joseph. Antiq. vm. iii. § 1. This dis- 
proves the oft-quoted opinion of Josephus having adopted the longer 
reckoning of the LXX. in preference to the shorter but truer chrono- 
logy of the Hebrew. 

2 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. i. p. 189. 

3 Jos. cont. Apion, i. § 17. 



THE TYEIAN ANNALS. 161 

which king Solomon built 566 years after the Jews went 
out of Egypt there is an account among the Tynans f n 
from which we gather that the Tyrian records were still 
in existence in the time of Theophilus, and that they 
stated the exact number of years which had elapsed from 
so marked a period in the history of the Israelites as the 
Exode, until that time of the close connection between 
the kingdoms of Israel and Tyre, as existed in the days 
of Solomon and Hiram, but which Josephus, for the 
reasons we have supposed, omitted to mention. 

We accept, then, the authority of the Tyrian annals, 
for deciding the duration of the period from the Exode 
to the Temple, for it accords with the chronology of 
Scripture as far as we are able to test it, and enables us 
to fill up in a general way the two chasms alluded to 
above, which prevent our speaking decidedly within one 
year of the Biblical date, and enables us to understand 
the meaning of St. Paul's " about 450 years " for the rule 
of the Judges. 

The harmony between the record of Scripture and the 
Tyrian annals in the chronology of this period, would 



stand as follows : — 

Years. 

Israelites in the wilderness 40 

To the division of the land .... 5 

Rule of the Judges (" about 450 ") . . 437 

Reign of Saul 40 

Reign of David 40-^ 

To the fourth year of Solomon ... 3^ 



566 



Moreover, there is an historical synchronism of much 
value for this period in our comparison of Egyptian his- 
tory with Scripture testimony, which it may be well to 
notice. It is written that, "in the 5th year of king 



1 Theophil. ad Autolyc. § 22. 
M 



162 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Eehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against 
Jerusalem." Solomon reigned thirty-six years after build- 
ing the Temple, therefore the fifth year of his son and 
successor must be computed as forty-one years after that 
event. Now, if we compare what we gather in Scripture 
respecting the whole period from the death of Levi, the 
last of Joseph's generation, in the 303rd year of the call of 
Abraham, and, consequently, 127 years before the Exode, 
which synchronised, as we have shown, with the rise of 
the new king, or eighteenth dynasty, " which knew not 
Joseph," unto the fifth year of Eehoboam, when he was 
attacked by Pharaoh Shishak, with the chronology of the 
different dynasties which reigned in Egypt according to 
Manetho during that time ; we shall find it sufficiently 
near to satisfy us, in the main, of the correctness of our 
conclusion regarding one, by its undesigned coincidence 
with the statements of the other. 

Years. 

From the rise of the 18th dynasty unto the Exode . . 127 
From the Exode to the building of the Temple . . . 566 
From the Temple to the fifth year of Eehoboam . . 41 

734 

According to Manetho, as transmitted by Africanus, 
whose authority is probably the best of the Greek an- 
nalists, the dynasty stands thus — 

Years. 

The 18th dynasty lasted .... 262 
The 19th ' „ .... 209 

The 20th „ .... 135 

The 21st „ .... 130 

736 

Pharaoh Shishak was the first king of the twenty-second 
dynasty, so that there are only two years' difference be- 



1 Kings, xiv. 25. 



CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM BY SHISHAK. 163 



tween our computation from Scripture and the chronology 
of Manetho of a synchronism of no slight importance 
in verifying the history of this period, and sufficiently 
near, without design, or " manoeuvring " as Bunsen 
would describe it, to convince us of the truth. 

Thus we find ourselves appro acliing the confines of 
the historic period according to the admission even of 
one of the Essayists. "Previous," says Mr. Wilson, "to 
the time of the divided kingdom, the Jewish history 
presents little which is thoroughly reliable. The taking 
of Jerusalem by ' Shishak ' is for the Hebrew history, 
that which the taking of Eome by the Gauls is for the 
Eomans." 1 We leave it to the consideration of others 
to decide how far this statement is correct, and whether 
we have not adduced some independent testimony, and 
proved some synchronisms between Egypt and Israel 
previous to the time of Shishak, sufficient to assure us 
that " Jewish history," in other words Holy Scripture, 
is more " reliable," both in its early as well as its later 
periods, than Mr. Wilson is disposed to admit. 

We conclude with a summary of the differences, we 
have thus noticed between the chronology of Bunsen 
and that of Scripture. We have seen that Scripture 
allows about 6000 years for the existence of man upon 
earth, and that Bunsen's theory for prolonging that 
period to B.C. 20,000, grounded upon the fact of pot- 
tery being discovered in the Nile-mud, is unfounded 
and of no weight whatever ; and that his inference con- 
cerning the many years being required for the formation 
of language is contrary to both Revelation and Science. 
We have learnt from Berosus the harmony which exists 
between the Chaldsean traditions and the Biblical state- 
ments respecting the Noachian Deluge ; and from Calis- 



1 Essays and Reviews, p. 170, note. 
m 2 



164 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



tlienes with regard to the commencement of astronomical 
observations at Babylon ; from Champollion's interpre- 
tation of the hieroglyphic monuments of Egypt ; and from 
the history of China by Confucius, that there is nothing 
of the nature of scientific proof to contradict the state- 
ment of Scripture respecting the dispersion of mankind, 
and its time, about 100 years subsequent to the Flood. 
We have found independent evidence of two of Abraham's 
contemporaries, Amraphel king of Babylon and Che- 
doiiaomer king of Persia, as existing at the time men- 
tioned in Scripture, and not eight or nine centuries earlier 
according to the requirements of Bunsen's system. We 
have shown that the duration of the period from Abra- 
ham to the Exode is distinctly declared in Scripture to 
be 430 years, and not 1440, nor 200, nor 600 years, 
as those learned authorities Bunsen, Lepsius, and Osburn 
respectively reckon. Further, we have brought forward 
such evidence as has been discovered by the interpre- 
tation of the monuments in proof of the existence of the 
Israelites in Egypt from the time of Joseph to Moses ; and 
we confidently challenge proof of their being in that 
country at any other period than that which accords 
with the statements of Scripture. The details are pecu- 
liarly interesting, and it is with no slight satisfaction that 
the earnest student of Bible and Egyptian history is 
enabled to discover the harmony which exists between 
them, and thus to see, in such undesigned coincidence, the 
truth and accuracy of both. If Scripture does not give 
any clue to the precise time of Abraham's visit to Egypt, 
Josephus, who possessed the records of Egyptian history 
which are now wanting, specifies that he instructed the 
people there in the science of astronomy, and was in- 
strumental in healing some religious feuds which existed 
when he went down. The monuments show that a civil 
war was raging at the time, when, according to Scripture 



SUMMARY, 



165 



chronology, Abraham's journey was undertaken, and in 
the succeeding reign, we have the first indications of the 
advance in science, on the part of the Egyptians, by the 
hieroglyphic proof of their division of the year into 
months. We can meet the objection of a German ra- 
tionalist that no sheep existed in Egypt, contradicting 
thereby the statement of Pharaoh having supplied Abra- 
ham with "sheep and oxen and asses, for Sarah's sake," by 
pointing to a tomb-painting at Gizeh of a period only a few 
years anterior to the time of Abraham, in which these 
several animals are represented as having belonged to the 
occupant of that tomb. If the monumental record of a 
" great famine in Egypt " does not support the hypo- 
thesis of Bunsen as to being the one which desolated 
Egypt in the time of Joseph, through failure both in 
chronology and of other details given in Scripture, we 
can adduce the Chinese annals in proof of a " seven 
years' " famine having extended as far as the extremities 
of Asia, at a time which synchronises with Joseph's 
vice-royalty in Egypt according to Biblical chronology. 
A tomb in Upper Egypt of that period reveals the ex- 
istence of certain strangers from Lower Egypt, whose 
Jewish cast of countenance apparently indicates the com- 
ing of the children of Abraham into that country. We 
have independent testimony of a change in the Egyptian 
priesthood at that period, which harmonises with what 
Scripture relates as having happened under the rule of 
Joseph. And a tomb has been discovered belonging to 
the age of that Pharaoh, whom the Greek authorities are 
unanimous in naming as the reigning sovereign, with the 
name and titles ascribed to Joseph in Scripture, and 
whose body, after having been royally embalmed, must 
have remained 144 years in Egypt previous to its re- 
moval at the time of the Exode to the land of Canaan. 
We have found from the monuments proofs of the rise 

M 3 



166 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



of a new dynasty, at the termination of a long civil war 
between the two Egypts, which Bunsen and others have 
so perseveringly misrepresented as the Hyksos period of 
one or two thousand years (for its advocates are not agreed 
which is the right chronology), in perfect harmony with 
the Scripture record of that period, that there arose " a 
new king which knew not Joseph." And that the 
chronology of the first seven kings of that dynasty, from 
the time of Amosis the chief of the dynasty, to the last 
year of Tuthmosis IV., the Pharaoh who was drowned in 
the Eed Sea, is hi exact accordance with the remainder of 
the 430 years from the death of all Joseph's generation 
unto the Exode. We have pointed out the Greek tra- 
dition, that Moses was educated in the court of a Pharaoh 
called Kenebron or Chebron, and the monuments show 
that the successor of Amosis bore that name, and that 
his sister Amesses, or " Set- Amen," can be no other than 
"the Pharaoh's daughter," who saved Moses from the 
water, as an obelisk which still exists at Thebes testifies 
to her being called by that very name. And the fact 
of her having been queen-regent for some years during 
the minority of her successor, sufficiently explains the 
Scripture statement of Moses having been "learned 
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians ; " as also the addi- 
tion of his having been " mighty in words and deeds " is 
explained by the statement of Josephus respecting Moses 
having conquered Ethiopia for the king of Egypt, which 
event is confirmed by one of the titles which Tuthmosis I., 
the reigning Pharaoh, bore according to a monumental 
inscription. We have seen, further, on the tomb of a 
court officer of Tuthmosis III., a representation of the Jews 
engaged in making bricks, with taskmasters overlooking 
them, and have adduced the statement of Kosellini that 
all the bricks stamped with the name of that king have 
invariably a portion of straw in them, as a significant 



SUMMARY. 



167 



proof of the mode of their manufacture. We have noticed 
several tilings respecting the grandson of Tuthmosis III., 
called Armais or Tuthmosis IV., whom we believe to be 
the Pharaoh drowned in the Eed Sea ; that Egypt under- 
went severe disasters during his reign ; that no trace of 
his tomb has been discovered in the royal burialplace of 
the sovereigns of his dynasty ; that he does not appear to 
have been succeeded by his eldest son ; and that, for some 
cause or other, his younger son and successor, Amenophis 
III., made a change in the national religion, as if to sig- 
nify that the priesthood of his father's reign had failed to 
preserve Egypt in the hour of danger. We have shown 
that Manetho's confused and contradictory account of the 
expulsion of those, whom he calls " Hyksos," or Shepherds, 
from Egypt, by a king named " Tuthmosis," can refer to 
none other than a perverted account of the Exodus of 
the children of Israel, as Josephus, who lived before the 
Temple records of Egypt were destroyed, and who has 
transmitted to us the fragments of this portion of Manetho's 
history, strongly contends is the case. We have proved 
that the rapid rate of increase in the children of Israel 
during their 215 years sojourn in Egypt, from seventy 
souls (the number at the time when Jacob and the 
patriarchs went down) to the 600,000 men "besides chil- 
dren," making in all it is calculated upwards of 2,000,000, 
whom Moses led out of Egypt, so far from being impos- 
sible, as Bunsen and others have contended in opposition 
to the plain statements of Scripture, accords with a similar 
rate of increase at other times, and in other countries, 
under less favourable circumstances than those with which 
the Israelites were favoured. We have pointed out that 
an argument which has been brought forward respecting 
the necessity of dating the Exode about 300 years later 
than Scripture allows on account of the monumental evi- 
dence of the conquests of Eamesses II. having extended 



M 4 



168 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



to Canaan, has not the weight which its advocates desire, 
but that the significant import of that evidence rather 
supports our inference, that his war in Canaan took place 
at the time when Deborah was judging Israel, by which 
the chronology of Scripture and the monumental history 
of Egypt are found to agree. We have sought in vain, 
and have challenged the opponents of Biblical chronology 
to the proof, for any monumental evidence or sign of the 
existence of the children of Israel in Egypt after the time 
when Scripture teaches they had quitted the country. And 
finally, we have brought forward the independent testi- 
mony of the Tyrian annals, respecting the exact interval 
from the Exode to the building of the Temple in confirma- 
tion of Scripture chronology, and in contradiction of the 
unfounded theory which Bunsen has advanced, that it 
was only about half the duration which the Bible assigns 
to that period. 

Under these circumstances, we are constrained to 
place a limited reliance upon the " Biblical Eesearches " 
of so eminent a scholar and so attractive a man as Baron 
Bunsen. When we recollect the theories these " Bibli- 
cal Eesearches" have led him to adopt — viz. that 
man's existence on earth may be computed at 20,000 
years B.C. in place of 4,000 ; that the ages of the ante- 
diluvian patriarchs, as given in Scripture, do not mean 
individual men, but represent certain epochs ; that the 
Noachian deluge was not universal as regards the human 
race ; that the interval between Abraham and Joseph's 
rule in Egypt was only a little more than 100 years, in 
place of over 200 ; that the time from Abraham to the 
Exode, is not to be reckoned as 430 years, according to 
the positive and repeated statements of Scripture \ " chro 



Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. p. 247. 



bunsen's biblical keseakches. 



169 



nology being foreign to the purpose and vocation of the 
Sacred Books," but must have embraced the prolonged 
period of 1,440 years ; that " if there is any historical 
fact well established, it is that Pharaoh himself did not 
perish" 1 in the Eed Sea; and that Moses only led the 
children of Israel for twenty years through the wil- 
derness, instead of forty, as Scripture so repeatedly 
affirms 2 : — when we remember such and similar in- 
stances of his mode of treating Scripture, we are com- 
pelled to reject his skilful but untenable hypotheses. 
And it is with unfeigned sorrow that we find his lan- 
guage at times to be such as to receive, what it really 
merits, the disapprobation of even his reviewer, Dr. 
Williams. " When Bunsen asks : How long shall we 
bear this fiction of an external revelation? All this is 
delusion for those who believe it ; but what is it in the 
mouths of those who teach it ? Is it not time, in truth, 
to withdraw the veil from our misery ? to tear off the 
mask from hypocrisy, and destroy that sham which is 
undermining all real ground under our feet ? to point out 
the dangers which surround, nay, threaten already, to 
engulf us ? — there will be some who think his language too 
vehement for good taste." But if we can so far agree with 
the Essayist, we must no less dissent from his opinion re- 
specting the meed of merit to be attributed to Bunsen, and 
the justice of his comparison between the twelfth and the 
nineteenth centuries, as well as his interpretation of what 
truth really means, " Others," continues Dr. Williams, 
" will think burning words needed by the disease of our 
time. These will not quarrel on points- of taste with a 
man who in our darkest perplexity has reared again the 



1 Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iii. p. 265. 

2 Ibid. p. 258. 



170 



BEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



banner of truth, and uttered thoughts which give courage 
to the weak and sight to the blind. If Protestant Europe 
is to escape those shadows of the twelfth century, which 
with ominous recurrence are closing round us, to Baron 
Bunsen will belong a foremost place among the champions 
of light and right." 1 



1 Essays and Reviews, pp. 92, 93. 



ON THE STUDY 

OF 

THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



CHAP. III. 

The same remark which we were constrained to make 
respecting the author of the " Biblical Kesearches," at the 
opening of the first chapter, applies equally here. Pro- 
fessor Baden Powell, the author of the Essay, " On the 
Study of the Evidences of Christianity," has been called 
away since this work was first published ; while, there- 
fore, in this as in every other instance, we would not be 
unmindful of the nisi bonum principle, truth compels us 
to expose, with all the rigour which the cause demands, 
the fallacies of the Essayist, which are doubly objec- 
tionable considering the quarter whence they come. 

It is certainly a singular phenomenon of the present 
day, considering the striking contrast which all countries, 
that have received the Christian religion, present to the 
outer world, to think that it should be necessary in the 
nineteenth century to bring forward proofs in favour of the 
Evidences of Christianity. But so it is. And no faithful 
follower of our Divine Master conscious of the over- 
whelming amount of proof in behalf of that religion 
which He came on earth to establish, can hesitate for a 
moment to meet an adversary on his chosen ground, even 
though that adversary, sad to think, was a professed 



172 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



minister of the Church, of Christ, which, therefore, he 
was bound by every moral obligation to uphold and 
defend. 

Professor Baden Powell, at the outset of his Essay 
would fain discard all controversy on the subject, ob- 
serving " The present discussion is not intended to be of 
a controversial kind, it is purely contemplative and theo- 
retical ; it is rather directed to a calm and unprejudiced 
survey of the various opinions and arguments adduced, 
whatever may be their ulterior tendency, on these im- 
portant questions." 1 Notwithstanding this disclaimer, and 
bearing in mind our full persuasion that controversy may 
be conducted without any violation of the law of love — 
as one of our own poets has finely advised — 

" Be calm in arguing, for fierceness makes 
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy. 
Why should I feel another man's mistakes 

More than his sickness or his poverty ? 
In love I should : but anger is not love, 
Nor wisdom neither ; therefore, gently move," — 2 

we must point out that " the ulterior tendency " of the 
learned Essayist's " calm and unprejudiced survey " is, 
in our humble opinion, of so dangerous a nature, that we 
feel constrained to notice it, and to the best of our power 
to endeavour to refute it. 

" The Evidences of Christianity," which in other words 
mean the truth of our religion and its claim to unhesitating 
acceptance, may be said to rest upon these three separate 
proofs : — I. Peophecy ; II. Miracles ; III. Science. 

Let us investigate each one in its turn. 

I. By Prophecy, we mean that portion of a Eevelation 
from on high, as contained in the Bible, the interpre- 
tation of which in its literal accomplishment as regards 



Essays and Reviews, p. 100. 



George Herbert. 



THE EVIDENCE FROM PKOPHECY. 



173 



past events, is an assurance of the same with reference to 
the future. The Essayist speaks of the threefold manner 
in which Eevelation in general is understood — " by 
the Eomanist, who regards it as of the nature of a stand- 
ing oracle, accessible to the living voice of the Church ; 
by the Anglican theologians, who ground their faith on 
the same principles of Church authority divested of its 
divine and infallible character ; by the Protestant, who 
regards it as once for all announced, long since finally 
closed, permanently recorded, and accessible only in the 
written divine word contained in the Scriptures ; " 1 but 
these remarks are not applicable to the prophetic portions 
of Eevelation, as there is no difference between the three 
with regard to the fact, however much there be in the 
interpretation and application of those facts. E. g. : In the 
first promise made to man after the fall, as recorded in 
God's revealed word (Gen. hi. 5), we have in the de- 
claration of the " enmity between the Serpent and the 
Woman," a distinct prediction or prophecy respecting 
the mode of man's recovery from the effect of Adam's 
transgression ; the fulfilment of which was accomplished 
4000 years after the occurrence, and about 1600 years 
after Moses recorded it for the instruction of his own 
people. It is true that the Eomanist in defence of his 
system of Mariolatry has perverted the prophecy, and 
has wrongfully applied, in defiance of all criticism and 
grammar, to a fallen creature like ourselves, though pro- 
perly termed " blessed " by all nations, what was exclu- 
sively fulfilled by the Incarnate Son of God ; but the 
error of the Church of Eome does not invalidate the 
truth and reality of the prophecy as understood both by 
the Jews in ancient, and by the Christians in modern 
times. We can point to this as one of many evidences 



Essays and Reviews, p. 101. 



174 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



of the Bible being what it professes to be, — the will of 
God revealed through the instrumentality of men of old, 
who were moved by the Holy Ghost to speak the truth 
both of the past and the future. 

Similarly must we understand the prophecy which the 
aged patriarch Jacob, when dying in Egypt, delivered 
respecting the expectation of Him, who was to bruise the 
Serpent's head. " The sceptre shall not depart from 
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh 
come ; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people 
be." 1 Supposing for a moment that Jacob was no other 
than some mythical personage, such as some of the ideolo- 
gists delight to imagine ; still, the fact of Moses, who lived, 
according to Bunsen even, more than thirteen centuries 
before the Christian era, having recorded a prediction 
that his people, who were in Iris time in the position of 
bondsmen to their Egyptian masters, should become a 
nation, possess a sceptre or kingdom, and retain it up to 
a certain time, when, on the appearance of Him who in 
the prophecy is called "Shiloh," 2 it should depart from 
them ; when, according to all natural reasoning, we might 
suppose their power would be rooted firmer than ever. 
Surely this is what no man, unless inspired, would or 
could have imagined by himself for a moment, as the 
result of those promises which God had given before to 
Abraham. 

Or consider what prophecy records concerning one of 
the oldest and mightiest kingdoms of the earth, whose 
history we have already noticed at length. We find a 
writer living at the commencement of the 6th century 
B.C., at a time when Egypt retained much of its original 



1 Genesis, xlix. 10. 

2 For an explanation of the word " Shiloh," and its application here, 
see pp. 9, 10. 



PEOPHECIES KESPECTING EGYPT. 



175 



power, and nearly seventy years before the Persian con- 
quest, declaring that " it should be the basest of the 
kingdoms ; that it should no more rule over the nations ; 
that it should become desolate : and that her cities shall 
be in the midst of the cities that are wasted ; . 
for thus saith the Lord God, I will also destroy the idols, 
and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph 1 
(Memphis) ; and there shall be no more a prince of the 
land of Egypt r 2 Here are three predictions, which it 
was absolutely impossible for man to foretell, and which 
have been literally and fully accomplished. The present 
position of Egypt, unlike all other countries, shows that 
her modern cities are verily in the midst of her ancient 
wasted cities, and that her extensive system of idolatry, 
which was probably the cradle of the later religions of 
Greece and Eome, is a thing of the past. Her history 
shows that more than twenty centuries have rolled by 
since a native prince has swayed the sceptre of that once 
magnificent empire. Persians, Greeks, Eomans, Saracens, 
Mamelukes, and Turks, have in turn ruled over, trampled 
down, and despoiled that unhappy country. And it only 
required the testimony of two such sceptical and therefore 
unexceptionable witnesses as Volney and Gibbon, to show 
the accuracy with which the prophecy has been fulfilled. 
The former, after describing Egypt's loss of her " natural 
proprietors " for so many centuries, goes on to say, " The 
Mamelukes purchased as slaves, and introduced as soldiers, 
soon usurped power, and elected a leader. If their first 



1 In the chamber of Karnak there is an hieroglyphic inscription 
recording an expedition of Thothmosis III. against Canaan, the spoils 
of which are described as being brought to Memphis, which is written, 
not with its ordinary Egyptian name, but as it was known in Canaan, 
Noph. 

2 Ezekiel, xxix. 15 ; xxx. 7, 13. 



176 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



establishment was a singular event, their continuance is 
not less extraordinary. They are replaced by slaves 
brought from their original country. The system of 
oppression is methodical. Every thing the traveller sees 
or hears, reminds him he is in the country of slavery and 
tyranny." 1 "A more unjust and absurd constitution," 
observes the latter, " cannot be devised than that which 
condemns the natives of a country to perpetual servitude, 
under the arbitrary dominion of strangers and slaves. 
Yet such has been the state of Egypt above 500 years. 
The twenty-four beys, or military chiefs, have ever been 
succeeded, not by their sons, but by their servants." 2 
Although the reign of the Mamelukes has now ceased, 
Egypt is not governed by a native prince in this pre- 
sent day, and we may feel assured, she never will be 
again. 

These few predictions we have noticed, a selection 
from a large number equally convincing, are sufficient 
evidence of the truth of the Old Testament being what it 
professes to be, a portion of the revealed word of God. 
And if the fulfilment of such prophecies affords evidence 
of their truth in regard to the past, we may fairly con- 
clude that the New Testament predictions will equally be 
accomplished in the future. Hence the lesson we draw 
respecting such which we believe are now in the course 
of fulfilment. 

The most important prophecies of the New Testament 
relate to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the restoration 
of the Jews ; to the rise and fall of the Eoman ecclesias- 
tical power ; and to the return of Him who once appeared 
as a " man of sorrows," and who will one day appear as 



1 Volney's Travels, vol. i. p. 198. 

2 Decline and Fall, ch. lix. 



TESTIMONY OF IKEN^EUS. 



177 



King of Saints. 1 The historic evidence respecting the 
first and most completely fulfilled of these several events 
may be briefly stated as follows. Irenasus, writing soon 
after the middle of the second century, states that the 
Apostle St. Matthew wrote a gospel amongst the Jews in 
their own language, while Peter and Paul were founding 
the Church at Eome. The testimony of Irenseus is pro- 
bably the most valuable of any of the writers of that age, 
from the exact way in which it may be traced for nearly 
150 years. Writing to Florinus, he says, "When I was 
yet a boy, I saw thee in company with Polycarp, in Asia 
Minor ; for I remember what took place then better than 
what happens now. What we hear in childhood grows 
with the soul, and becomes one with it, so that I can de- 
scribe the place where the blessed Polycarp sat and spoke 
. . . how he told of his intercourse with John, and with 
the rest who had seen the Lord ; how he reported their 
sayings, and what he had heard from them respecting the 
Lord, His miracles, and His doctrines. 2 In the gospel of 
St. Matthew, which was written, according to the best 
evidence, not long after the Crucifixion, and several years 
before the fall of Jerusalem, our Lord is represented as 
having forewarned His disciples of its destruction. And 
so specific were His warnings, which were to usher in the 
judgment, that it is well known those who regarded them 
escaped the heavy judgment which then fell upon that 
doomed race. Josephus 3 records that after the unac- 
countable retreat of the Eoman army under Cestus, which 



1 "To the Christian Church the second coming of Christ stands 
where His first coming stood to the J ewish — in the very centre of the 
field of prophetic light ; and a participation in the glories 1 then to be 
revealed ' is even limited to those who in every age are devoutly ' look- 
ing for Him.' " — Natural History of Enthusiasm, p. 108. 

2 Fragm. Deperdit. Op. S. Irenasi, p. 340. Paris, 1710. 

3 Jud. Bel. II. xx. 1. 

N 



178 



EE DELATION AND SCIENCE. 



delayed, but did not prevent the destruction of Jerusalem, 
" many of the most eminent of the Jews swam away from 
the city, as from a ship when it was going to sink." 
Epiphanius 1 and Eusebius 2 both relate that the Christians 
fled to Pella in Persea, a mountainous country, where 
they found safety, in accordance with their Master's 
exhortation, 44 Then let them which be in Judea nee into 
the mountains." 1 It is unnecessary to detail how literally 
our Lord's prediction was fulfilled, but we may adduce the 
unexceptionable evidence of the Talmud, which mentions, 
that 44 Eufus, the captain of Titus' army did with a 
ploughshare tear up the foundations of the Temple ; and 
thereby signally fulfilled those words in Micah iii. 12. 
44 Therefore shall Zion for your sakes be ploughed as a 
field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the moun- 
tain of the house as the high places of the forest." The 
same spirit which foretold the fall of the Jews, has like- 
wise prophesied their national restoration to that land 
which God gave to Abraham and his seed as an 44 ever- 
lasting possession." This, the prophets of the Old Testa- 
ment are full of, as we find it taught literally in Jeremiah 
xxxi. 38 — 40 ; symbolically in Ezekiel xxxvii. 15 — 22 ; 
figuratively in Isaiah lxvi. 10 — 13 ; and this is what St. 
Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, seems to point to ; and 
certainly the signs of the times teach a very convincing 
lesson of the changed condition of the Jews, and the altered 
feeling of the nations of the Gentiles towards them from 
what it was at the commencement of the present century. 

There is an ancient tradition amongst the Jews, that 
their national restoration would synchronise with the 
destruction of the Eoman power. 44 Currente sexto," 
writes Abraham Sebah in his commentary on Gen. i., 44 an- 
norum mundi millenaris Eomana evertendam et Judasos 



1 Adv. Hgeres. xxix. 7. 2 Ecc. Hist. iii. 5. 3 St. Matt. xxiv. 16. 



THE CHUKCH OF ROME. 



179 



reducenclos." And this appears to accord with what 
we gather from the writings of the New Testament, which 
necessarily are of no authority amongst the Jews. In 
St. Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians and to Timothy, 
and in the Apocalypse of St. John, we have a detailed 
and exact account of the rise and fall of that ecclesiastical 
system which has alike excited the admiration and in- 
dignation of so many ages. What human power could 
have foreseen that a Church whose " faith " was so 
bright in the first century as to be 44 spoken of throughout 
the whole world," should be guilty in after ages of apos- 
tasy 1 , idolatry, and cruelty of so deep a die that hu- 
manity shudders at its recital. If we understand " the 
apostasy," defined by St. Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 3, &c, which 
in our authorised version is rendered 44 a falling away," 
or the parallel passage in 1 Tim. iv. 1, that 44 some 
should depart (lit. apostatise) from the faith," in the 
sense in which the word is elsewhere used in the JSTew 
Testament, viz. Heb. iii. 12, and in many places of the 
Old, according to the LXX., we have an exact definition 
of the term, which means a defection on the part of those 
to whom true religion has been revealed from the worship 

1 " I am convinced," said Bishop Van Mildert in the House of Lords, 
a.d. 1829, " and that upon no light or superficial grounds, but after 
many years of studious consideration and inquiry, that the religion of 
Popery is distinctly pointed out in Scripture as the one great apostasy 
from the truth, the declared object of Divine displeasure." It is a mat- 
ter of great importance to bear in mind the twofold judgment upon 
Rome, as declared so plainly in the 17th and 18th chapters of Revela- 
tion ; the one from man, which we see in the present day, as she is 
being deprived of her temporalities by the powers of the earth ; the 
other and more terrible judgment, which is coming, when God will 
pour out the vials of His wrath upon her, as He once did upon Sodom 
and Gomorrha, which will be fully accomplished when " her sins have 
reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities — and 
with violence she be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." 
Rev. xviii. 5, 21. 

n 2 



180 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



of Him whom we are commanded to serve " only" not by 
rejecting God, but by adding the worship of dead and dei- 
fied mortals. Such was the sin of the Jews after their settle- 
ment hi the Land of Promise, when ensnared by the false 
but attractive religion of the surrounding heathen nations ; 
such has been the sin of the Church of Eome, which, 
after the first six centuries of her existence, gradually 
paganised Christianity, or as some would say, developed 
Eoman Catholicism, by exchanging the pantheon of the 
Greeks for the worship of the Virgin Mary and all the 
Saints. It is unnecessary now to enter upon the details 
of those two famous prophecies in St. Paul's Epistles, as 
they have been so often and so fully considered ; but it 
will be sufficient to remark, that if language has any 
definite meaning, if the characteristic marks which the 
Spirit of God has thought fit to reveal, are to be received 
in their plain and literal meaning as a guide to our 
understanding thereof, then assuredly, notwithstanding 
the unceasing attempts of two schools in the present day, 
those who are commonly called Futurists 1 , and those 
who follow the teaching of the Essayists, such as Pro- 

1 The Futurists commonly deny the application of St. Paul's predic- 
tion in 2 Thess. ii. to the Papacy, on the grounds that the power there 
depicted claims obedience as the performer of " lying wonders," which 
they interpret to mean " true miracles in support of a falsehood," 
while some of them admit that the miracles of the Church of Eome are 
not true, but false or pretended ones. In thus reasoning they have 
betrayed their incompetency as critics, as well as their inefficiency as 
prophetic interpreters ; for the expression which St. Paul uses, repaat 
\pevcovc, is one of the many Hebraisms found both in the Old and 
New Testament, and can have no other meaning than " false or fictitious 
miracles," which exactly suits the unfounded pretensions of the Church 
of Eome. It is right to remember that the Futurist interpreters of pro- 
phecy are also divided into two schools ; the one leaning to Eomanism, 
the other to extreme Puritanism, such as the tenets held by the " Ply- 
mouth Brethren." Both, however, are alike hostile to the Catholic 
teaching embodied in the formularies of the Church of England. 



THE CHURCH OF ROME. 



181 



fessor Jowett, to evade the force of the predictions, we 
have no hesitation in affirming that they can have no 
other application than to the apostate and idolatrous 
Church of Borne. 

If the rise and fall of what may be termed the spi- 
ritualities of the Eoman Church have been predicted by 
St. Paul, no less fully have the temporalities been by 
St. John, to whom it was revealed that a great Eccle- 
siastical power, with the aid of the secular arm should per- 
secute the followers of Him whose place she usurped and 
whose vicar she pretended to be, with such cruelty that 
the Apostle could not forbear to express his wonder and 
amazement. " I saw the woman (upon whose forehead 
was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great, the 
Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth) drunken 
with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the 
martyrs of J esus : and when I saw her I wondered with 
great admiration." 1 When we remember that the Bull 
of Pope Pius III., a.d. 1536, entitled "Bulla in coena 
Dei," which is still read every Maundy Thursday in the 
presence of the reigning Pontiff, " excommunicates and 
curses all heretics, under whatever name they may be 
classed, as well as those who secede from obedience to 
the Eoman Pontiff for the time being ; " 2 and that the 
Council of Constance in the previous century had decreed 
that " heretics were' to be burnt alive," which decree had 
been enforced practically by the council in the martyr- 
dom of John Huss and Jerome of Prague ; when we 
recollect what history records as to the way in which 
the massacre of so many thousands in France on St. 
Bartholomew's day was welcomed at Eome, as the walls 
of the Vatican testify to this hour, we can in some 
measure understand " the wonder " which the vision 



1 Rev. xvii. 5, 6. 2 Mag. Bull. Rom. a. d. 1536. 

n 3 



182 



"REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



must have excited in the Apostle's mind, when he saw 
by revelation the professed Vicar of Christ persecuting 
unto death ^ those who gloried in His name. Heathen 
Rome doing the work of heathenism in persecuting the 
Church was no mystery. It required no prophetic eye 
to foresee that, after the burning of Rome and the 
Neronic persecution, which has been so graphically de- 
scribed by the pen of Tacitus, that Christians would 
suffer cruelly from the heathen powers ; but that a 
Christian Church, calling herself " Mother and Mistress 
of all others," 1 should in time become " the Mother of 
Harlots," and " drunk with the blood of saints," this was 
indeed a mystery. This was a prediction, which nothing 
but Omniscience could have foreseen or foretold, and as 
such it is evidence of the New Testament being, what it 
claims to be, the written testimony of men moved by the 
Holy Ghost to declare the revealed will of God. 

If we contrast the prophecies recorded in Scripture, 
which are so self-convincing that scepticism has sought to 
obviate their force by vainly affirming them to be history 
of the past instead of predictions of the future, with the 
boasted oracles of the heathen, we see at once the falsity 
of their pretensions in the ambiguity of their answers. 
When Croesus sought the assistance of the Delphic oracle 
to know his fate in the event of invading the Persian 
empire, he received this ambiguous reply : " By crossing 
the Halys, Crcesus will destroy a great empire." 2 When 



1 Concil. Trident, sess. x. Hard. x. 53. 

2 According to Herodotus, i. § 47, Croesus had previously tested and, 
as he thought, proved the value of the Delphic oracle, when it related 
his actions in the well known story of the lamb and the tortoise in the 
brazen kettle ; but there was this important distinction between the two 
cases : the first related to things present, in which the Pythian priestess 
might have been assisted by an evil spirit ; the second related to things 
future, and therefore all that the spirit of divination could do was to 
veil his ignorance by intentional ambiguity. Eawlinson accounts for 



HEATHEN OEACLES, 



183 



Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, contemplated the invasion of 
Italy, he was induced by the oracular response, 

" Aio te, JEacide, Romanos vincere posse," 

(which the peculiarity of the Latin construction reads, 
either " that you may conquer the Eomans," or " the 
Eomans may conquer you") to interpret it in his own 
favour, and thus hurried on to his ruin. And if we be- 
lieve the testimony of Plutarch, who admits the failure of 
oracles in his own time, we have an interesting account of 
their cessation about the time of the introduction of 
Christianity, and which he explains by supposing that the 
demons who conducted those oracles, though longer lived 
than men, were now dead. " In the time of Tiberius," 
he relates, t£ some persons embarking from Asia for Italy, 
towards the evening, sailed by the Echinacles, where, being 
becalmed, they heard from thence a loud voice, calling 
one Thamus, an Egyptian mariner amongst them, and 
after the third time, commanding him, when he came to 
the Palodes, to declare that the great Pan 1 was dead. 
With the advice of his company, he resolved that if they 
had a quick gale when they came to the Palodes, he would 
pass by silently ; but if they should find themselves be- 
calmed there, he would then perform what the voice had 
commanded. But when the ships arrived thither, there 
was neither any breeze of wind nor any agitation of the 
water. Whereupon Thamus, looking out of the stern 



the success of the answer by supposing that either the Pythoness really 
possessed an evil spirit, as in the instance mentioned in Acts, xvi. 16 — 
18, or by Mesmerism. See Rawlinson's Herod, in loco. 

1 In the name of Pan, and the allusion to an Egyptian mariner alone 
of all the crew there might be a reference to the celebrated inscription 
on the Temple at Sais in Egypt, to Neith, the Goddess of Wisdom : — 
" I am all {jav) that hath been, and is, and shall be, 
And no mortal hath yet lifted my veil." 

PJut. de Isid. et Osir. § 9. 

n 4 



184 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



towards the Palodes, pronounced these words, with a loud 
voice, ' The great Pan is dead,' which he had no sooner 
done, than he was answered by a chorus of many voices, 
making a great howling and lamentation, not without a 
mixture of admiration." 1 Plutarch also says that Tibe- 
rius took pains to ascertain the truth of this extraordinary 
story, and, like Herod the Great, he inquired, diligently 
of the wise men who this " great Pan " could be. But 
whether it be a real occurrence or not, it is a notable 
tradition current amongst the heathen with regard to a 
cessation of their oracles at a time when, according to the 
Gospels, the demons who afflicted men recognised the 
omnipotent power of Jesus, the Son of God. 

Modern times, however, have witnessed no less than 
ancient, a fondness for dealing in prophetic utterances, but 
which upon investigation, present a very different appear- 
ance from the predictions recorded in Scripture, and can 
claim the title of only being happy guesses of the future. 
We all recollect the excitement caused by the republication 
of Fleming's work on Prophecy, a.d. 1848, in which the 
writer had stated that that year would see the end of the 
Papacy. Now, though it was true that Europe was con- 
vulsed from one end to the other at that period, and the 
Pope for a time was obliged to quit Koine, several years 
have since glided away, and the Papacy still exists. So 
at the commencement of the Eussian war a few years 
subsequently, the following " cock and bull" story, said 
to have been written in the middle of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, was put forth respecting the contemplated fall of 
the Turkish Empire : — 

" In twice two hundred years the Bear 
The Crescent will assail ; 
But if the Cock and Bull unite, 
The Bear will not prevail. 



1 Plutarch, De Defect. Orac. 



UNINSPIRED PREDICTIONS. 



185 



In twice ten years again 

Let Islam know and fear, 
The Cross shall stand, the Crescent wane, 

Dissolve and disappear." 

Certes, the middle of the nineteenth century witnessed 
a great war, in which England and France were united 
on behalf of Turkey against Eussia, We know Chris- 
tianity will last, and we believe Mahometanisni will dis- 
appear ; but we very much doubt whether the sobriquet 
of " John Bull " was known in the fifteenth century, or 
that the epithets of Cock and Bear were applied in that 
period to France and Eussia respectively. It is true that 
there has been for many ages a popular notion that Eussia 
is to obtain possession of Constantinople. Gibbon 1 relates 
that as early as the eleventh century an equestrian statue, 
which had been originally brought from Antioch, and was 
supposed to represent either Joshua or Bellerophon (an odd 
dilemma), stood in the square of the Taurus, on which was 
inscribed a prophecy how the Eussians in the last days 
should become masters of Constantinople. The events, 
however, of late years, seem to show that this " prophecy," 
though its fulfilment has been so long and so anxiously 
sought by the Eussians, is further removed than ever. 

In the Augustinian Library at Koine, there is a work, 
which we believe is still to be seen, containing another of 
these curious predictions, though not claiming an anti- 
quity of above two centuries. The author must have 
certainly possessed the mind of a far-seeing statesman, 
when he wrote as follows : — " Before the middle of the 
nineteenth century, seditions will be excited everywhere 
in Europe. Eepublics will arise ; kings will be put to 
death, together with the nobility and ecclesiastics ; and 
the religious will desert their convents. Famhie, pesti- 
lence, and earthquakes will spread desolation over many 



Decline and Fall, ch. Iv. 



186 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



cities. Eome will lose her sceptre by the invasion of 
false philosophers. The Pope will be made captive by 
his own people, and the Church of God will be placed 
under tribute, divested of its temporal possessions. In a 
short time there will be no Pope. A prince from the 
North will overrun Europe with a great army, destroy 
the republics, and exterminate all rebels. His sword, 
wielded by God, will vigorously defend the Church of 
Christ, uphold the orthodox faith, and subdue the Maho- 
medan power. A new pastor, the final one, will come 
by a heavenly sign from the shore, in simplicity of heart, 
and in the doctrine of Christ, and peace will be restored 
to the world." Though some things in this very curious 
prediction have certainly come to pass, no one would be 
venturesome enough to pin his faith on the fulfilment of 
the rest, except so far as they are inferences from the 
revealed word of God ; and therefore, like the others 
already noticed, they necessarily stand in a different cate- 
gory from those prophecies of Scripture, the literal ac- 
complishment of which is both an evidence to their truth 
with reference to the past, and a warrant to assure us of 
their fulfilment in the f uture. 

II. Miracles, as well as prophecy, are unquestion- 
ably one of the evidences of the truth of the Christian 
religion. If we have not misapprehended Professor 
Baden Powell's meaning, he seems, in the Essay before 
us, to reproduce the scepticism of Hume respecting mira- 
cles with the usual complacency of his school, not only 
as if the arguments he adduces were of the force which 
he supposes them to be, but as if they had not been an- 
swered, and that most satisfactorily, over and over again. 
We are reminded of what Bishop Home used to say re- 
specting the cavillers in his day. " Pertness and ignorance 
may ask a question in three lines, which it will cost 
learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer ; and when 



EVIDENCE FROM MIRACLES. 



187 



this is done the same question shall be triumphantly asked 
again the next year, as if nothing had ever been written on 
the subject" When Hume stated the case of miracles to 
be a contest of opposite improbabilities, i. e. a question 
whether it be more improbable that the miracle be true 
or the testimony false, Paley properly exposed the 
" want of argumentative justice " in the reasoning of 
that noted infidel, by showing that he "suppressed all 
those circumstances of extenuation, which result from 
our knowledge of the existence, power, and disposition of 
the Deity." 1 Considering that the same author in his 
masterly work brought forward " an accumulation of 
historical testimony " in confirmation of the truth of the 
Christian religion in general, and of the writings of the 
New Testament in particular, it is a poor w^y of attempt- 
ing to evade their importance, by quoting with appro- 
bation, as the Essayist does, the opinion of " a very able 
critic," that " the last age erroneously denominated such 
testimonies the Evidences of Christianity." Had this 
critic been better acquainted with the subject which he 
was treating, he would have known that " the last age," 
as well as the present age, was fully justified in accepting 
" historical testimonies," or what Bunsen calls " historical 
synchronisms," like prophecy, or miracles, or science, as 
valuable and undesigned proofs of the truth of the 
Christian religion. Professor Powell's inability to com- 
prehend the Evidences of Christianity is apparent in the 
following monstrous asseveration, in which he is venture- 
some enough to declare that, " the extreme 6 Evangelical ' 
school, strongly asserting the literal truth of the Bible, 
seeks its evidence wholly in spiritual impressions, re- 
garding all exercise of the reason as partaking in the 



1 Paley's Preparatory Considerations to the Evidences of Chris- 
tianity, p. 5. 



188 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



nature of sin." 1 It is unnecessary to reply to this gra- 
tuitous mistake, which is only to be paralleled by another 
statement of the same writer (the confusion of whose 
mind is so evident) in the wonderful announcement, that 
" if a number of respectable witnesses were to concur in 
asseverating that on a certain occasion they had seen 
two and two make five, we should be bound to believe 
them.'" 2 In comparing this with the case of Scripture 
miracles, it is difficult to decide which is most apparent, 
the profanity or the absurdity of the remark. Had the 
Essayist been less self-satisfied with his overpowering 
scepticism, he would have avoided the many blunders 
which pervade his Essay. Who but a sceptic of the 
deepest dye could have committed himself to such a 
statement as this — " testimony is but a blind guide, 
testimony can avail nothing against reason ? " 3 We 
admit such testimony as that of his ideal arithmetician, 
whose first principles enable him to add up two and 
two and to produce five as the correct result, is of that un- 
reasonable or rather impossible kind, that the slightest 
modicum of common sense compels us to reject it ; but 
since the miracles of the New Testament, as evidences of 
Christianity, stand on a very different footing, the attempt 
at argument on the part of the Essayist refutes itself. 

Dr. Johnson was right when, after alluding to Hume's 
proposition he declared that " the Christian revelation is 
not proved by miracles alone, but as connected with pro- 
phecies and with the doctrines in confirmation of which 
miracles were wrought," 4 The Essayist indeed quotes 
this truthful saying, but only for the purpose of dismis- 
sing it with the somewhat contemptuous remark, " What 
is it but to acknowledge the right of an appeal, superior 



1 Essays and Reviews, p. 120. 2 Ibid. p. 141. 

:i Ibid. p. 141. 4 Boswell's Life, vol. iii. p. 169. 



EVIDENCE FROM MIRACLES. 



189 



to that of all miracles, to our own moral tribunal, to the 
principle that 4 the human mind is competent to sit in 
moral and spiritual judgment on a professed revelation,' 
in virtue of which Professor F. W. Newman, as well as 
many other inquirers, have come to so very opposite a 
conclusion." 1 And he adopts this theory, that " if miracles 
are made the sole criterion, then amid the various dif- 
ficulties attending the scrutiny of evidence, and the de- 
tection of imposture, an advantage is clearly given to the 
shrewd sceptic over the simple-minded and well-disposed 
disciple, utterly fatal to the purity of faith." 2 Without 
dwelling upon the theory of miracles being made the sole 
criterion of faith, which no Christian worthy of the name 
attempts to maintain, this reasoning is palpably erroneous, 
simply because he who adopts it has failed to notice the 
difference between true miracles, such as God alone can 
perform, and those pretended ones, with which men have 
sought to support their false religions, and which might 
be more properly denominated " mysteries " or phe- 
nomena which cannot be explained ; and which are 
sometimes real, and sometimes the reverse. " All inex- 
plicable phenomena," observes the Essayist, " are in fact 
miracles, or at any rate mysteries. We are surrounded 
by miracles in nature, and on all sides encounter phe- 
nomena which baffle our attempts at explanation, and 
limit the powers of scientific investigation ; phenomena 
whose causes or nature we are not, and probably never 
shall be, able to explain." 3 We see in this the confusion 
in the writer's mind. 44 Miracles " are one thing, 44 mys- 
teries" are another. There is as much difference be- 
tween the two, as between God and man. The proper 
definition of a miracle is the exercise of Almighty Power, 
manifested either in person, or entrusted to His servants, 



1 Essays and Reviews, p. 122. 2 Ibid. p. 123. 3 Ibid. p. 109. 



190 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



or permitted to His enemies, as was the case with the 
Egyptian Magi, in the past, and as will be the case, we 
conclude from Eev. xvi. 14, with " the spirits of devils 
working miracles " in the future. " Mysteries," or in- 
explicable phenomena, may be such as the Essayist has 
described in his curious jumble of " the martyrs, who 
spoke articulately after their tongues were cut out 1 ; the 
angel seen in the air by two thousand persons at Milan ; 
the miraculous balls of fire on the spires at Plausac ; Hero- 
dotus' story of the bird in the mouth of the crocodile ; 
narratives of the sea serpent, marvels of mesmerism, 
electro-biology, and vaccination." 2 We think it is a sad 
jumble to place the sea serpent and vaccination in the 
same category, when arguing against miracles as an 
evidence of Christianity, though it may betray the un- 
happy bias of the writer's mind, since it proves that he 
disdains not to use the weapons of banter and ridicule in 
his antagonism to the truth. What can be more offen- 
sive for a professed minister of the Church of Christ than 
the bold declaration of the Essayist on this subject ? " In 
nature and from nature, by science and by reason, we 
neither have nor can possibly have any evidence of a 
Deity working miracles; for that, we must go out of 
nature and beyond science. If we could have any such 
evidence from nature, it could only prove extraordinary 
natural effects which would not be miracles in the old 
theological sense, as isolated, unrelated, and uncaused ; 
whereas no physical fact can be conceived as unique, or 
without analogy and relation to others, and to the whole 
system of natural causes." 3 If we were content to meet 
this broad piece of scepticism by a general denial of the 

1 If we recollect aright, Gibbon gives some credence to this as a 
" miracle," notwithstanding the tone of ridicule which Professor B. 
Powell adopts. 

2 Essays and Pveviews, p. 137. 3 Ibid. pp. 141, 142. 



NEW TESTAMENT MIRACLES, 



191 



same, we could not do better than quote the language of 
the late much lamented Professor Archer Butler, who 
has justly observed, " You may deny the story of miracles, 
but can you destroy the miracle of the story ? You may 
discredit this volume of miracles, — for the Spirit of God 
does not now descend to silence its gainsay ers, — but can 
you unmiracle the obstinate fact of the volume itself? " 

We would, however, prefer to specify two distinct 
events recorded in the New Testament, as evidences 
of the truth of Christianity, about w r hich there can be 
no mistake and no deception, if w r e accept the testi- 
mony of the sacred writers as readily as we do that 
of another accredited historian when an eyewitness of 
what he records, and whose statements are subsequently 
confirmed by unwilling adversaries. They are these, 
1st, the power of raising the dead ; 2nclly, that unlettered 
persons should instantly be able to speak in languages 
before unknown to them, so as to be understood by those 
whom they addressed. This is what the New Testament 
claims for our Lord and His disciples, and the existence 
of Christianity to this day in place of overthrown Paga- 
nism sufficiently confirms its truth. If, therefore, a small 
company of unlearned men should declare that at a 
certain period an individual appeared in the world, claim- 
ing to be " the Son of God," telling them, as his followers, 
that he should suffer a cruel death, and that after lying 
three days and three nights in the grave he should rise 
from it, and that at the appointed time all this came to 
pass ; that they were eyewitnesses of such events, and 
that this holy Being appeared to them three days after 
they had seen him crucified, and had watched beside 
the place where he w r as buried ; that after his ascension 
to heaven, of which they were also eyewitnesses, they had 
gone forth in obedience to their Master's commands, to 
deliver the message with which he had entrusted them, 



192 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



to all who would listen to them ; and that for the execu- 
tion of this work they found themselves in the possession 
of certain powers, — such as raising the dead and speaking 
the various languages of the nations amongst whom they 
laboured with as much ease as their own and without 
any previous study, — which he had foretold should ac- 
company their work ; and finally that many of them laid 
down their lives in testimony of the truth of their story, 
which they otherwise might have preserved had they felt 
so disposed : when we remember these things it is im- 
possible to explain them otherwise than by accepting it 
as the true history of " Deity working miracles " in behalf 
of that religion which He designed to establish among 
men. The effective testimony of such an unexception- 
able witness as Tacitus to the spread of Christianity at 
Eome in the latter half of the first century 1 ; the con- 
fident appeal of the converted philosopher Justin Martyr 2 
to the Soman Senate in proof of the origin of Christianity 
at the commencement of the second century, as their own 
archives bore witness ; the striking declaration of Tertul- 
lian 3 respecting the marvellous increase of Christianity 
throughout the empire at the close, and which was done 
always at the risk and often at the expense of life : all 
these are evidences to the fact, as well as to the proof that 
nothing less than " Deity working miracles " in behalf of 
His love towards mankind could have effected so wonderful 
a change in the condition of the Eoman empire. 

It is curious to observe how differently the testimony 
of two of the authors referred to above is accepted by a 

1 Tac. Annal. xv. 44. 

2 Apol. Prima, pp. 65, 72. Ed. Ben. 

3 " We are but of yesterday, and by to-day are grown up and over- 
spread your empire ; your cities, your islands, your forts, towns, as- 
semblies, and your very camps, wards, companies, palace, senate, and 
forum, all swarm with Christians." — Tertul. Apol. c. xxxvii. 



TESTIMONY OF GIBBON. 



193 



distinguished historian of modern times, but whose mind 
is of a "painfully sceptical" tendency. Commenting 
upon the description which a pagan has given of the 
sufferings of the early Christians, under Nero, Gibbon 
observes : " The most sceptical criticism is obliged to re- 
spect the truth of this extraordinary fact, and the integrity 
of this celebrated passage of Tacitus. The former is 
confirmed by the diligent and accurate Suetonius, who 
mentions the punishment which Nero inflicted on the 
Christians, a sect of men who had embraced a new and 
criminal superstition. The latter may be proved by the 
consent of the most ancient manuscripts ; by the inimi- 
table character of the style of Tacitus ; by his reputation, 
which guarded his text from the interpolations of pious 
fraud ; and by the purport of his narration, which 
accused the first Christians of the most atrocious crimes, 
without insinuating that they possessed any miraculous, 
or even magical powers, above the rest of mankind." 1 
When, however, he has a Christian author to deal with, 
his reception and treatment of the same is somewhat dif- 
ferent. 2 " The Apology of Tertullian" he relates, con- 
tains two very ancient, very singular, but, at the same 
time, very suspicious instances of imperial clemency : the 
edicts published by Tiberius and by Marcus Antoninus, 
and designed not only to protect the innocence of the 
Christians, but even to proclaim those stupendous miracles 
which might perplex a sceptical mind. We are required 
to believe that Pontius Pilate informed the emperor of 
the unjust sentence of death which he had pronounced 
against an innocent, and, as it appeared, a divine person ; " 3 

1 Decline and Fall, ch. xvi. § 1. 

2 Person, in his famous eulogy of Gibbon, remarks, that " his hu- 
manity never slumbers except when women are ravished and Christians 
persecuted." 

3 Decline and Fall, ch. xvi. § 4. 





194 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



and so Gibbon adds, in a foot note, " The testimony 
given by Pontius Pilate is first mentioned by Justin."" 

Now, considering that the Apologies of both Justin and 
Tertullian were addressed to " the Eoman senate," and 
that they continually appealed to the state documents, 
which must have been hi existence when they wrote, in 
proof of what they asserted — as the former twice repeats 
his appeal to the senators — "that these things were so 
done, or done by him, you may know from the acts made 
in the time of Pontius Pilate ; " 1 the latter declares, " this 
wonder of the world (viz. the supernatural darkness at 
the time of the crucifixion) you have related, and the 

relation preserved in your archives 2 to this day 

Pilate, who in his conscience was a Christian, sent Tibe- 
rius Caesar an account of all the proceedings relating to 
Christ;" 3 and after speaking of Tiberius' proposition to 
enrol Christ amongst the Roman deities, which was re- 
jected by the obsequious senate, on the ground that the 
emperor had declined the honour for himself, Tertullian 
continues, in agreement with the statement of Tacitus, 
" Consult your annals, and there you will find that Nero 
was the first emperor who dyed his sword in Christian 
blood, when our religion was just rising at Borne." 4 Con- 
sidering all these things, we need only call attention to 
the manifest want of fairness on the part of a professed 

1 Just. Apol. Prima, pp. 65, 72. Ed. Ben. 

2 Gibbon contends that as Tertullian' s "mention of this prodigy is 
found in Arcanis (not Archivis) vestris, he probably appeals to the 
Sibylline verses, which relate it exactly in the words of the Gospel." 
— Decline and Fall, ch. xv. ad Jinem foot note. The force of Gibbon's 
" probably " is lessened by the fact that some authorities (e. g. Nic. 
Eigalt. T. C.) read "Archivis " and not " Arcanis; " and it is far more 
rational to infer that Tertullian (whichever word he used) referred to 
the genuine Acta Pilati than to the " Sibylline verses," which were 
forged a little before his own age, and of which he must have been 
well aware. 

3 Tertul. Apol. c. xxi. 4 Ibid. c. v. 



HISTORICAL EVIDENCES. 



195 



rationalist, such as Gibbon, when he has two different 
measures for Christian and pagan authors. To any candid 
mind, uninfluenced by scepticism, and therefore impartial, 
when investigating a matter, such as this, on which con- 
current evidence exists, the very fact of the writers 
appealing confidently to the State documents of their 
adversaries, in proof of their assertions, would be sufficient 
to satisfy it of the truth ; and in this instance, we may, and 
ought to be satisfied with the evidence of such eminent 
philosophers as Justin Martyr and Tertulhan, even though 
Christians, in favour of the truths which they assert. 

Thus then, we reply to the unbecoming remark of the 
Essayist, that " the champions of the ' evidences ' of 
Christianity have professedly rested the discussion of the 
miracles of the New Testament, on the ground of precise 
evidences of witnesses, insisting on the historical character 
of the Gospel records, and urging the investigation of 
the truth of the facts, on the strict principles of criti- 
cism, as they would be applied to any other historical 
narrative," 1 by pointing out the confirmation which 
the historical records of the time for external ', and the 
undesigned coincidences of the New Testament for in- 
ternal proof, afford to the truths of the Gospel. And it 
betrays a conscious weakness of the rationalistic cause, as 
well as ignorance of the true foundation of Christianity, 
to assume, as Professor Powell has done, that "if we 
attempt any uncompromising, rigid scrutiny of the 
Christian miracles, on the same grounds on which we 
should investigate any ordinary narrative of the super- 
natural or marvellous, we are stopped by the admonition 
not to make an irreverent and profane intrusion into what 
ought to be held sacred and exempt from such unhallowed 
criticism of human reason." As a specimen of the Essay- 



1 Essays and Eeviews, pp. 110, 111. 
o 2 



196 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



ist's incompetency to understand the nature of miracles, 
as an evidence of Christianity, we need only refer to the 
case which he quotes of Henry Martyn among the Persian 
Mahometans. " They believed readily," he says, " all 
that he told them of the Scripture miracles, but directly 
paralleled them by wonders of their own ; they were proof 
against any argument from the resurrection, because they 
held that their own sheikhs had the power of raising the 
dead" (p. 118). Did they "parallel" them by wonders 
as true and as real as those recorded in Scripture ? Had 
the Mahometan sheikhs " the power of raising the dead ? " 
— not merely asserting their ability to do so, but actually 
doing it ? In this lies the great distinction between the 
Christian religion and all other human systems which 
have captivated and deluded mankind. To compare one 
with the other is as unreasonable as it is to imply a parallel 
between the sober and consistent statements of the Evan- 
gelists respecting the resurrection and ascension of Christ, 
and the fabulous " night journey " of the impostor Ma- 
homet, " from the sacred temple of Mecca to the farther 
Temple of Jerusalem," as recorded in the Koran. 1 

The Christian religion, being divine, is, of necessity, 
miraculous. It is likewise a rational religion, in the 
proper sense of the term, not contrary to, though it may 
be above our finite reasoning powers. Therefore the 
faithful Christian not only need fear no " investigation " 
of its realities and its truths, but challenges such, well 
assured that every fresh attempt, whether conducted by 
friend or foe, will bring the religion he loves, and knows 
to be true, triumphant through the ordeal. It is only 
such irrational sceptics as " Theodore Parker, who denies 
miracles, because 'everywhere (as he says) I find law 
the constant mode of operation of an infinite God,' or 
Wegscheider, who asserts the belief in miracles is irre- 



Koran, cli. xvii. v. 1. 



EVIDENCES FROM MIRACLES. 



197 



concilable with the idea of an eternal God consistent 
with himself" (p. 114), that need fear "investigation" 
of the evidences of Christianity, as the result must 
necessarily be to convince every candid mind, that the 
hypothesis of miracles being irreconcilable with a con- 
sistent God is too preposterous to need refutation. 

" Miracles," then, — the miracles of the New Testament, 
as distinguished alike from those pretended ones whereby 
Eome captivates her deluded votaries, and from the 
" mysteries or inexplicable phenomena," such as animal- 
magnetism, or any other of the many is?ns with which 
this sceptical age abounds, — are an evidence of the truths 
of Christianity. And when we find men representing the 
rejection of the miracles of Scripture as an indication of 
mental superiority, we need not feel surprised ; for we are 
assured that " there shall come in the last days scoffers, 
walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the 
promise of his coining ? for since the fathers fell asleep, 
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the 
creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by 
the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth 
standing out of the water and in the water," &c. It is 
this willing ignorance that has led the rationalistic school 
astray ; and this it behoves every Christian to remember, 
in accordance with the warning,- — " Seemg ye know these 
things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with 
the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness." 1 

III. If Prophecy, and Miracles afford, as we contend 
they most clearly do, very strong evidence in favour 
of the truths of Christianity, with no less truth do the 
undesigned and incidental allusions to Science, which are 
occasionally met with in Scripture, afford proof of the 
same. Such, however, was not the opinion of Professor 



1 2 Peter, iii. 3, 4, 5, 17. 
o 3 



198 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Powell, as we gather from his brief references to the 
subject. " An evidential appeal, which in a long past 
age was convincing as made to the state of knowledge in 
that age, might have not only no effect, but even an in- 
jurious tendency, if urged in the present, and referring to 
what is at variance with existing scientific conceptions, 
just as the arguments of the present age would have 
been unintelligible in a former " (p. 117). Again, the 
same author observes, — " The first dissociation of the 
spiritual from the physical was rendered necessary by the 
palpable contradictions disclosed by astronomical dis- 
covery with the letter of Scripture. Another still wider 
and more material step has been effected by the dis- 
coveries of geology. More recently, the antiquity of the 
human race, and the development of species, and the 
rejection of the idea of creation, have caused new ad- 
vances in the same direction " (p. 129). 

Eeserving the proof of the Scripture references to 
" Geology " being in accordance with real Science, for our 
examination of the Essay on the " Mosaic Cosmogony," 
we propose to consider the scientific accuracy of the 
Bible in general, and its agreement with modern " astrono- 
mical discoveries " in particular. We must, however, as a 
preliminary, distinguish between " scientific conceptions," 
which the Essayist admits are varying from age to age, 
and true science, in other words, the understanding and 
application of the irreversible laws of the Creator, which 
are unchangeable. We have a notable instance of this 
in relation to geology, according to the statement of a 
French author, who mentions that, " in 1806, the French 
Institute numbered eighty geological systems, all hostile to 
the Mosaic record, not one of which has stood the test of 
time and research." 1 All real Science, being true, is like 



1 La Bible et la Science Moderne par le Pasteur Ed. Panchaud, p. 13. 



HAKMONY OF SCEIPTUKE AND SCIENCE. 199 

God's word, unchangeable, and, therefore, we are not sur- 
prised to find men, with limited understanding and finite 
reasoning power, compared with the Creator of all things, 
constrained to confess their ignorance, by fresh discoveries 
in Science eventually confirming those truths of Revela- 
tion, which at first they were supposed to contradict. Let 
us consider some illustrations of this as set forth in Holy 
Scripture. 

§ 1. Gen. i. 3. — In that sublime speech, which Moses 
records respecting the creation of light, and which so 
highly excited the admiration of the great heathen 
critic \ when God spake " Let there be light, and there 
was light," we note that this is said to have been done 
three " days " before the sun, which men considered for 
so many ages the sole source of fight, was appointed to 
rule the day. Had Moses been a mere man, well up to 
the " scientific conceptions " of his own day, and with- 
out inspiration from above, he would have recorded the 
creation of the sun as anterior to that of light. But we 
see in this seeming inconsistency, a testimony to the 
divine authority of the Pentateuch ; for modern science 
has at length discovered that the sun, though supreme, is 
not the only source of fight, but that there is, throughout 
the endless regions of space, a fine, subtle essence, called 
ether, which, restrained by no limits, washes the remotest 
shores of the universe with an invisible ocean, and which 
is of so refined a nature, that the stars move through its 
depths without encountering any resistance. Hence arise 
those waves, or undulatory motions, which, spreading with 
excessive velocity in every possible direction, produce, 
according to the theory of Huygens, the effect of light. 

§ 2. Leviticus xvii. 11. — " The life of the flesh is in 
the blood." What Moses taught in plain language, and 



Dionysius Longinus, Treatise concerning the Sublime, § 9. 
o 4 



200 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



what Solomon, more than 500 years later taught in figu- 
rative, " or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden 
bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, 
or the wheel broken at the cistern,'' 1 Science has at 
length, after the labour of 3000 years, taken credit for 
having been the first to discover. That the blood actually 
possesses a living principle, and that the life of the whole 
body is derived from it, as was demonstrated by Dr. 
Harvey in the seventeenth century, and established by 
the celebrated Dr. John Hunter in the eighteenth, is 
a truth of Divine Eevelation, set forth and declared 
thousands of years before the skill and ingenuity of man 
enabled him to discover the same. 

§ 3. Deuteronomy xxxii. 2. — " My doctrine shall drop 
as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew." The 
scientific accuracy of this beautiful allusion, is very 
striking, as we learn by Revelation the true theory of the 
formation of dew, as distinguished from that of rain. 
The dew does not fall, as was supposed for many ages, 
but, as the experiments of a French chemist have re- 
cently shown, is merely the condensation of the watery 
vapour floating in the colder region of the air, and es- 
pecially near the surface of the ground. In the same 
chapter, v. 24, there is an allusion to the dreadful scien- 
tific fact, which has only been lately pointed out by the 
celebrated Liebig, that when a person is starved to death, 
he is undergoing the process of being slowly burned up, as 
Moses foretold the judgment upon the guilty children of 
Israel, " they shall be burnt with hunger" and which was 
literally accomplished in the two-fold siege of Jerusalem. 

§ 4. Job xiv. 7, 8, 9. — Nothing but the modern dis- 
covery of the microscope has enabled man to learn the 
action of vapour upon the respiratory organs and secre- 
tionary vessels in the leaves of plants, which they inhale 



Eccles. xii. G. 



HARMONY OF SCRIPTUEE AXD SCIENCE. 



201 



from the air for their nourishment. This is another 
instance of scientific accuracy with which Scripture is 
written, as we find Job refers to this interesting discovery 
in the following language : " There is hope of a tree, if it 
be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender 
branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof 
wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the 
ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud, and 
bring forth boughs like a plant." 

§ 5. Job xxvi. 7. — What uninspired man ever had 
certain knowledge of the real shape of this world which 
we inhabit until a few centuries ago ? The Hindoo 
legend of the tortoise and the elephant was the limit of 
man's skill during several thousand years before being 
able to decide what now appears to us so simple and so 
plain. It is true that the Pythagoreans, according to the 
report of Philolaus of Croton, taught the progressive move- 
ment of a non-rotating earth, and that Aristarchus of 
Samos, and Seleucus of Babylon, are said to have taught 
that the earth not only rotated on its axis, but also moved 
round the sun, but these ideas were so much in advance 
of the age, that they were rejected by the greater names 
of Plato and Aristotle, who imagined that the earth 
neither rotated on its axis, nor advanced in space, but that, 
fixed to one central point, it oscillated, like a half-filled 
balloon, from side to side. Eratosthenes, the most cele- 
brated philosopher of the Alexandrian school, believed 
that there was an " external sea surrounding all conti- 
nents ; " but the world required 2000 years more educa- 
tion before it could receive the truth as set forth by 
Copernicus. Yet Job, as we read in probably the most 
ancient book of Scripture, was enabled by the inspiration 
of God to declare, " He stretcheth out the north over the 
empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing ; " 
thereby stating a scientific truth 3000 years before the 
ingenuity of man had enabled him to discover it. 



202 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



§ 6. Job xxviii. 23 — 25. — Who ever, previous to the 
time of Galileo, imagined that the air around us possessed 
the property of weight ? Yet the same inspired writer is 
represented as asserting, " God understandeth the way 
thereof to make the weight for the winds ; and He weigheth 
the waters by measure." God has given an atmosphere 
to the earth, which, possessing a certain gravity exactly 
suited to the fauna and flora of the present age, is the 
cause in His hand of preserving animal and vegetable life 
throughout all creation ; for by this means blood cir- 
culates in the veins of the one, and juices in the tubes of 
the other. Without this pressure of the atmosphere, 
there could be no respiration, and the elasticity of the 
particles of the air, without this superincumbent pressure, 
would rupture the vessels in which they are contained, 
and destroy both kinds of life. So admirably contrived 
is this " weight of the winds " by Him who doeth all 
things well, that we find in the mean that it is neither 
too light to prevent the undue expansion of animal and 
vegetable tubes, nor too heavy to compress them to the 
injury of their health and life. 

§ 7. Job xxxviii. 31. — " Canst thou bind the sweet 
influences of Pleiades ? " was one of the questions where- 
with the Lord answered Job when demanding a recog- 
nition of His almighty power. What is the meaning of 
this "influence of the Pleiades?" Some commentators 
have considered that there is a reference to the influence 
which the stars were formerly supposed to have upon the 
seasons, forgetful of the declaration of Moses that God 
had appointed the sun and the moon, as the "two 
great lights for signs and for seasons, and for days and 
years." 1 And until the science of astronomy had made 
the very great advance which it has in our day, partly 



1 Gen. i. 14—16. 



HARMONY OF SCRIPTURE AND SCIENCE. 



203 



through the improvement in the telescope, it was im- 
possible for man to imagine what this " influence " could 
mean. Eecently this has been explained by one of the 
most wonderful discoveries in that department of Science. 
After infinite labour the revolution of the whole solar 
system around some central sun is recognised as a scientific 
truth just as much as the revolution of the earth in its 
orbit. The " influence " of this central sun upon our 
solar system must be proportionally as great as that of 
the sun upon the earth and the planets, according to the 
law of gravitation. Professor Maedlar of Dorpat, a dis- 
tinguished Eussian astronomer, who has for years devoted 
his attention to the subject, has determined the " in- 
fluence " which the Pleiades have upon the earth, as they 
form the central group of our whole astral system, in- 
cluding the Milky Way, though exclusive, it is believed, 
of the most distant nebulas ; and that Alcyone, or y 
Tauri, as it is named by astronomers, is the star of this 
group which appears most probably to be the true central 
sun. Light, which flits through space at the amazing rate 
of 192,000 miles each second of time, takes 537 years in 
reaching our earth from that distant centre. 1 And it 
has been estimated that it would require a period of 



1 The known speed at which light travels is the only way by which 
our finite minds are enabled to conceive the enormous magnitude of 
creation. Thus, e. g. the moon, our nearest neighbour in the skies, 
reflects on us the ray of light which it has received from the sun, in 
less than one second of time. The rays of the sun require about nine 
minutes in their transit to the earth, and rather more than four hours 
to Neptune, the farthest planet (first discovered by Professor Adams, 
be it remembered, and not by Le Yerrier, as foreigners vainly boast) 
yet known in our solar system. It takes three years for light to pass 
to us from a Centauri, the nearest of the fixed stars ; 537 years, as we 
have noticed above, from the chief star in the Pleiades ; and, according 
to the estimation of Sir William Herschel, the long period of 330,000 
years from the outer extremity of the Milky Way. 



204 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



18,200,000 years for our solar system to complete one 
single revolution, although progressing annually at the 
rate of 154,185,000 miles around the central sun. May 
we not exclaim at the contemplation of the power of 
Him, who has called all these into being, and has regu- 
lated them by His wisdom, in the language of one of our 
own poets ? — 

" These be Thy glorious works, Thou Source of good, 
How dimly seen, how faintly understood." 

§ 8. Psalm cxlvii. 16. — "The Lord giveth snow like 
wool." Modern discovery has shown there is a deeper 
meaning in this expression of the Psalmist, than was for- 
merly supposed. Hence the Jews very naturally, as in 
the Targum and Eabbi Kimchi, considered the simi- 
larity to refer to colour, snow and wool being in this 
respect alike. The ancients used to call snow " woolly 
water," 1 and Martial, the Eoman poet, gives it the name 
of " densum vellus aquarum" 2 a thick fleece of waters. 
But the comparison refers, w T e cannot doubt, to the ad- 
mirable manner in which the Creator of all things has 
ordered that snow falling upon the earth should cover it, 
and warm it, and cause it to fructify for the use of man. 
Snow maintains its internal heat exactly in the same way 
as wool on the sheep's back ; the minute fibres entangle 
the air, and, forbidding its escape, prevent the introduction 
of cold. 

§ 9. Proverbs viii. 27. — "When He prepared the hea- 
vens, I was there : when He set a compass upon the face 
of the deep." The expressions in this verse and the con- 
text, seem to indicate a measured progress in the act of 
creation, as well as an arrangement of pre-existing ma- 
terials, which accords with the discoveries of modern 



Eustathius in Dionys. 



2 Epigram, lib. iv. ep. 3. 



HARMONY OF SCRIPTUEE AND SCIENCE. 



205 



Science, that this earth was fitted up for the habitation of 
man many ages after it was originally called into being. 
The declaration that the Creator set a compass upon the 
face of the deep, or as it is expressed elsewhere, " com- 
passed the water with bounds," 1 points alike to the fact 
of this world being in form a terraqueous globe (so long 
unknown to civilised man), as well as to the law of gravi- 
tation by which all the particles of matter, tending to a 
common centre, would produce in all bodies the orbi- 
cular form, which we see them have, so that even oceans 
and seas are not only retained within proper bounds, but 
are subjected to the circular form like other parts of 
matter. Thus Solomon, the wisest of men in ancient 
times, by the inspiration of God, stated a scientific fact 
thousands of years before Newton the most gifted of men 
in modern times was enabled by his own unaided skill to 
discover it. 

§ 10. Ecclesiastes, i. 5, 6. — " The sun ariseth, and the 
sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he 
ariseth ; he goeth toward the south, and turneth about 
unto the north. The wind whirleth about continually, 
and returneth again according to its circuits." It will be 
seen that we have not, in this passage, adhered exactly 
to our noble authorised version, which has attributed to 
the wind, what all other versions agree in referring to the 
sun, by applying the first clause of verse 6 to the former, 
instead of to the latter, contrary to the original text. If 
then we read it according to the Hebrew, we find the 
course of the sun truly and scientifically stated, and 
somewhat different from the popular belief of the 
Iberians of old, a race on the western extremities of 
Europe, who affirmed that they used to hear the sun 
hiss as it nightly sank into its watery bed ; though not 



Job, xxvi. 10. 



V 



206 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



to be wondered at when the learned of those times con- 
sidered that the shape of the earth was merely that of a 
plate. The inspired son of David, however, could de- 
scribe the apparent diurnal and annual course of the sun, 
without contradicting anything that Science has subse- 
quently found true. In the passage we have quoted he 
notices two things : 1. Day and night, marked by the 
appearance of the sun above the horizon, travelling from 
east to west, where he is lost to sight during the silent 
hours of the niodit. 2. The annual course of the sun 
through the twelve signs of the zodiac, when, from the 
equinoctial, he proceeds southward to the tropic of 
Capricorn, from which he " turneth about to the north," 
until he reaches the tropic of Cancer. Moreover, what 
is said in the above passage respecting the " wind whirl- 
ing about continually, and returning again according to 
its circuits," clearly indicates the rotatory theory of 
storms, viz. that hurricanes and storms do not blow, as 
formerly imagined, hi a straight line from a single point, 
at a great distance, but that they are vast eddies in the air, 
which whirl about like the eddies of a stream of water, 
according to the inductions of modern science. 

§ 11. Ecclesiastes, i. 7. — Solomon continues: " All the 
rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full ; unto the 
place from whence the rivers come, thither they return 
again." Thus scripture shows, long before the ingenuity 
of man had discovered it, the great system of aqueous 
circulation which is constantly going on. How comes it 
that the sea is not full, since so many gigantic rivers are 
unceasingly pouring into its depths such mighty streams 
of water ? The reason is, as Science teaches, that nothing 
goes into it, either by the rivers or rain, which does not 
come from it. Water exhaled from the sea by evapo- 
ration, is collected in the clouds, then it is condensed 
into rain, then it descends to the earth, and percolates 



HAKMONY OF SCRIPTURE AND SCIENCE. 



207 



through its surface, then it rises in springs, the com- 
mencement of mighty streams, and finally is carried by 
these into the seas from whence it was first derived. 

§ 12. John xix. 34. — " One of the soldiers with a 
spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood 
and water." It was at one time the custom for sceptics 
to -affirm that the Evangelist's account (notwithstanding 
it was that of an eyewitness of the fact, as "he that saw 
it bare record, and his record is true," v. 35) of the 
issue from the Saviour's wound could not have been 
correct, as, if His frame had been " made in all things 
like " to our own, it would necessarily have been blood 
only. But, as Fullom, in his valuable work on " The 
Marvels of Science," remarks, " Here science has risen 
up, like a holy apostle, to testify to the truth of Chris- 
tianity." For it has now been discovered that the heart 
is invested by a hollow membrane, somewhat like a purse, 
called the pericardium, containing a small quantity of 
clear water, and consequently the issue from the Saviour's 
wound must necessarily, according to the inspired record, 
have comprised both " blood and water" It is by such 
seeming accidents, or rather undesigned coincidences that 
the genuineness, the authority, and the truthfulness of the 
Scriptures are established and vindicated. 

Having thus noticed some of the many incidental allu- 
sions in Revelation to subjects which modern Science, 
after thousands of years of toil and labour, has at length 
discovered and admitted to be true, we must examine 
one more question which the Essayist has mooted, 
wherein he endeavours to show "the palpable contra- 
dictions disclosed by (modern) discovery with the letter 
of Scripture," as he asserts that " more recently the anti- 
quity of the human race, and the development of species 
and the rejection of the idea of 4 creation,' have caused new 
advances in the same direction " (p. 129). Further on 



208 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



he again speaks of " that enormous length of time which 
modern discovery has now indisputably assigned to the 
existence of the human race " (p. 139). It is unnecessary 
to repeat what we. have already considered at length in 
our examination of " Bunsen's Biblical Researches," but 
it may be satisfactory to state that the more we inves- 
tigate the discoveries of real science, the more confirmed 
we are in our belief that there is not the shadow of a 
proof 'in contradiction of the Scripture statement respect- 
ing the age of man on earth. Bunsen's theory from the 
pottery deposits in the Mle mud is the strongest argu- 
ment which the rationalistic school has adduced in contra- 
diction of Scripture on this point, but we have already 
seen that when the objection is fairly investigated it has 
no force whatever, for it tends rather than otherwise to 
confirm the historic statement of the Bible. The Essayist, 
however, not content with the error he has committed 
respecting the age of the human race on earth, has made 
a gigantic stride in the direction of scepticism by his 
theory, or rather his quoting approvingly another man's 
theory, respecting the mode of creation. " It is now ac- 
knowledged," says Professor Powell, "under the high 
sanction of the name of Owen, that 6 creation ' is only 
another name for our ignorance of the mode of produc- 
tion ; and it has been the unanswered and unanswerable 
argument of another reasoner that new species must have 
originated either out of their inorganic elements, or out of 
previously organised forms ; either development or spon- 
taneous generation must be true : while a work has now 
appeared by a naturahst of the most acknowledged au- 
thority, Mr. Darwin's masterly volume on 4 The Origin of 
Species ' by the law of 6 natural selection,' — which now 
substantiates on undeniable grounds the very principle 
so long denounced by the first naturalists, — the origina- 
tion of new species by natural causes : a work which must 



DARWIN'S ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 



209 



soon bring about an entire revolution of opinion in favour 
of the grand principle of the self-evolving powers of 
nature" (p. 139). We have adopted the italics of the 
Essayist, who thus clearly indicates his own theory re- 
specting the modus operandi in the matter of our 
" creation." Passing over the manifest unfairness in 
coupling together the names of Owen and Darwin, who, 
as we shall take the opportunity of showing, are in direct 
antagonism on this most important subject, we must first 
of all consider what is Mr. Darwin's theory, so highly 
lauded by Professor Powell. We cannot, therefore, do 
better than state it in his own words, extracted from that 
volume, which, if it has no rightful claim to the epithet 
of " masterly," is assuredly a most interesting and be- 
witching work, and has we fear proved too attractive to 
many, as indeed it must to all whose faith is not firmly 
fixed upon the revealed word of God. " I cannot doubt," 
says Mr. Darwin, " that the theory of descent with modi- 
fication embraces all the members of the same class. I 
believe that animals have descended from at most only 
four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or 
lesser number. Analogy would lead me one step further, 
namely, to the belief that all animals and plants have 
descended from some one prototype. But analogy may 
be a deceitful guide. Nevertheless all living things have 
much in common, in their chemical composition, their 
germinal vesicles, their cellular structure, and their laws 
of growth and reproduction. Therefore, I should infer 
from analogy that probably all the organic beings which 
have ever lived on this earth have descended from some 
one primordial form into which life was first breathed by 
the Creator.'" It is singular to observe the different 
phases which modern rationalism has undergone. If at 
one time it assumes that mankind, with all animal and 
vegetable life, have sprung from " some one primordial 

p 



210 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



form ; " at another time it declares that Adam could not 
have been the parent of the whole human race l i but that 
there must have been a multitude of others simulta- 
neously created with him. In short, man's unsanctified 
intellect prefers the most unreasonable fancy to be- 
lieving the simple statements of the word of God. The 
development theory, whether propounded by Darwin, 
Lamarck, or the author of the "Vestiges" which has been 
quaintly described as a " scheme of creation by which the 
immediate ancestor of Adam was a chimpanzee, and his 
remote ancestor a maggot," has been ably exposed by 
Hugh Miller. He supposes the descendants of the ourang- 
oatang employed in some future age writing treatises on 
geology, and describing the remains of the quadrumana 
as belonging to an extinct order : he pictures Lamarck 
bearing home in triumph the skeleton of some huge sala- 
mander of the Lias, and indulging in the pleasing belief 
that he possessed the bones of his grandfather, removed 
of course by many generations ; while he justly acids, 
" Never yet was there a fancy so wild and extravagant 
but there have been men bold enough to dignify it with 
the name of philosophy, and ingenious enough to find 
reasons for the propriety of the name." 2 Mr. Darwin ac- 
counts for this marvellous transformation of all animal 
and vegetable life 3 , upon the principle of " natural selec- 
tion" He says, " I will give two or three instances of 
diversified and of changed habits in the individuals of 
the same species. When either case occurs, it would be 
easy for natural selection to fit the animal, by some mo- 



1 See Essays and Keviews, p. 349. "It is possible, and may one 
day be known, that mankind spread not from one, but from many 
centres over the globe." — Professor Jowett. 

2 The Old Eed Sandstone, ch. iii. 

3 Darwin on the Origin of Species, p. 484. 



DARWIN'S ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 



211 



dification of its structure, for its changed habits, or exclu- 
sively for one of its several different habits. ... In 
North America the black bear was seen by Hearne swim- 
ming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, 
almost like a whale, insects in the water " (pp. 183, 184) ; 
ergo, the black bear and the whale are alike sprung from 
the same primeval fungus ! 

Mr. Darwin is not deterred by the natural objection to 
his extraordinary hypothesis, but admits them with the 
utmost candour, and dismisses them with charming self- 
complacency. " It has been asked," he observes, " by the 
opponents of such views as I hold, how, for instance, a 
land carnivorous animal could have been converted into 
one with aquatic habits ; for how could the animal in its 
traditional state have subsisted ? It would be easy to 
show that within the same group carnivorous animals 
exist, having every intermediate grade between truly 
aquatic and strictly terrestrial habits, and as each exists 
by a struggle for life, it is clear that each is well adapted 
in its habits to its place in nature. . . . If a different 
case had been taken, and it had been asked how an in- 
sectivorous quadruped could possibly have been con- 
verted into a flying bat, the question would have been far 
more difficult, and / could have given no answer. Yet 1 
think such difficulties have very little weight" (pp. 179, 
180). He adds, " To suppose that the eye, with all its 
inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different 
distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and 
for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, 
could have been formed by natural selections, seems, I 
freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree " 
(p. 186) ; and he admits, if it could be demonstrated that 
any complex organ existed, "which could not possibly 
have been formed by numerous, successive slight modifi- 
cations, my theory would absolutely break down" (p. 189), 

p 2 



212 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



though he had previously declared that " he who will go 
thus far, ought not to hesitate to go farther, and to admit 
that a structure even as perfect as the eye of an eagle 
might be formed by natural selection, although in this 
case he does not know any of the transitional grades. His 
reason ought to conquer his imagination, though I have 
felt the difficulty far too keenly to be surprised at any 
degree of hesitation in extending the principle of natural 
selection to such startling lengths" (p. 188). 

Startling, indeed, is this theory, so gravely put forth by 
a man of science, and commended by a professed minister 
of the Church of Christ, to hear that " natural selection " 
has the power of producing the highest type of animal 
life from the lowest type of vegetable life — of converting 
a mushroom into a man ! In order to be consistent in. 
his opposition to the Mosaic record, where the work of 
creation is said to have been completed in " six days," 
whatever length of time those " days " may mean, Mr. 
Darwin advocates another theory, viz. of a countless 
period of ages, previous to the earliest fossils, and of 
which there are no remains, or rather none yet discovered, 
owing, as he expresses it, to " the imperfection of the 
geological record," to enable natural selection slowly to 
perform her work of changing a fungus into a whale, or 
an ammonite into an oak. " If my theory be true," he 
carefully states, " it is indisputable that, before the lowest 
Silurian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed, as 
long as, or probably far longer than, the whole interval 
from the Silurian age to the present day ; and that during 
these vast, yet quite unknown periods of time, the world 
swarmed with living creatures " (p. 307). He, however, 
candidly asks, " On this doctrine of the extermination of 
an infinitude of connecting links between the living and 
extinct inhabitants of the world, and at each successive 
period between the living and extinct inhabitants of the 



OXEN ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 213 

world, and at each successive period between the extinct 
and still older species, why is not every geological forma- 
tion charged with such links ? Why does not every 
collection of fossil remains afford plain evidence of the 
gradation and mutation of the forms of life? We meet 
with no such evidence, and this is the most obvious and 
forcible of the many objections which may be urged against 
my theory. Why, again, do whole groups of allied species 
appear, though certainly they often falsely appear, to have 
come in suddenly on the several geological stages ? Why 
do we not find great piles of strata beneath the Silurian 
system, stored with the remains of the progenitors of the 
silurian groups of fossils ? For certainly, on my theory, 
such strata must somewhere have been deposited, at these 
ancient and utterly unknown epochs in the world's history" 
(pp. 463, 464). If common sense forbids our belief in 
Mr. Darwin's not original theory of man being formed by 
the process of "natural selection" from the primeval 
fungus (though even that must have had a progenitor, 
which he has omitted to notice), no less strongly does the 
well-established science of geology condemn his hypothesis 
of the " utterly unknown epochs " between the igneous or 
non-fossiliferous rocks and the Silurian system. He asserts 
it because his " startling theory " requires it ; and if you 
ask for proof, he is obliged to decline the reasonable 
challenge, simply because there is none to show. It is well 
known that the crust of the earth has been sufficiently 
searched, and the order of the different strata, whether with 
or without fossil remains, has been found to be invariably 
the same in all parts of the globe, which prevents our re- 
ception of the most visionary and improbable idea that 
has ever entered the mind of man. We have termed Mr. 
Darwin's theory " not original," because a similar fancy 
seems to have been broached by Professor Lorenz Oken, 
a.d. 1810, and likewise by an ancestor of his own, — we 

p 3 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



believe his grandfather, — about the same time. " Physico- 
philosophy," said the former, " has to portray the first 
period of the world's development out of nothing ; how 
the elements and heavenly bodies originated ; in what 
method, by self-evolution into higher and manifold forms, 
they separated into minerals, became finally organic, and, 
in man, attained to self-consciousness. There are two 
kinds of generation in the world — the creation proper, 
and the propagation that is consequent thereupon ; conse- 
quently, no organism has been created of larger size than 
an infusorial point. No organism is, nor ever has one 
been, created, which is not microscopic. Whatever is 
larger, has not been created, but developed. Man has 
not been created, but developed." The latter wrote : " I 
am acquainted with a philosopher who thinks it not im- 
possible that the first insects were the anthers or stigmas 
of flowers, which had, by some means, loosed themselves 
from their parent plant ; and that many other insects have 
gradually, in long process of time, been formed from these ; 
some acquiring wings, others fins, and others claws, from 
their ceaseless efforts to procure their food, or to secure 
themselves from injury." 1 

Before the days of Oken and the elder Darwin, Mon- 
sieur Maillet, an ingenious Frenchman of the time of 
Louis XV., supposed that the whole family of birds had 
existed at one time as fishes, which, on being thrown 
ashore by the waves, had got feathers by accident ; and 
that mankind are the descendants of a tribe of sea- 
monsters, who, getting tired of their proper element, 
crawled up the beach one fine morning, and, taking a 
fancy to the land, forgot to return. Two centuries ago, a 
writer named Gerard propounded a theory, somewhat 



Dr. Darwin's Botanic Garden, Add. Note xxxix. 



GERARD ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 215 



analogous to the one above, that the bernicle-goose 
(Bemicla leucopsis) was produced from the ship-barnacle ; 
and in order to prove his theory, he gives drawings of the 
different specimens in all their stages, from the mollusc to 
the bird. His account of this wonderful transition is as 
follows : — " What our eyes have seen, and hands have 
touched, we shall declare. There is a small island off 
Lancashire, called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are found 
the broken pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof 
have been cast thither by shipwracke ; and also the 
trunks and bodies, with the branches, of old and rotten 
trees, cast up there likewise ; wherein is found a certain 
spume or froth, that in time breedeth into certaine shels, 
in shape like those of the muskle, but sharper pointed, 
and of a whitish colour ;, one end whereof is fastened 
into the inside of the shell, even as the fish of oisters and 
muskles, — the other end is made fast into the belly of a 
rude masse or lumpe, which in time commeth to the shape 
and form of a bird ; when it is perfectly formed the shell 
gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the 
aforesaid lace or string ; next come the legs of the bird 
hanging out, and as it groweth greater it openeth the shell 
by degrees, till at length it is all come forth, and hangeth 
only by the bill : in short space after it commeth to full 
maturities and falleth into the sea, where iigathereth feathers, 
and groweth to a fowled 

The most distinguished propounder, . however, of the 
Darwinian theory, we take to be an author towards the 
close of the last century, more distinguished, perhaps, in 
the region of politics than of science, and who has thus 
broadly, yet with refined irony, placed the case fairly 
before us. " We may conceive," he says, " the whole of 
our present universe to have been originally concentred 
in a single point ; we may conceive this primeval point, 

p 4 



216 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



or punctum saliens of the universe, evolving itself by its 
own energies, to have moved forward in a right line, ad 
infinitum, till it grew tired ; after which, the right line 
which it had generated would begin to put itself in 
motion in a lateral direction, describing an area of infinite 
extent. This area, as soon as it became conscious of its 
own existence, would begin to ascend or descend, accord- 
ing as its specific gravity would determine it, forming 
an immense solid space, filled with vacuum, and capable 
of containing the present universe. Space being thus 
obtained, and presenting a suitable nidus or receptacle for 
the accumulation of chaotic matter, an immense deposit 
of it would be gradually accumulated ; after which, the 
filament of fire being produced hi the chaotic mass by an 
idiosyncrasy, or self-formed habit, analogous to fermenta- 
tion, explosion would take place, suns would be shot from 
the central chaos, planets from sicns, and satellites from 
planets. In this state of things, the filament of organisa- 
tion would begin to exert itself in those independent 
masses which, in proportion to their bulk, exposed the 
greatest surface to fight and heat. This filament, after an 
infinite series of ages, would begin to ramify ; and its 
oviparous offspring would diversify their former habits, 
so as to accommodate themselves to the various incunabula 
which Nature had prepared for them. Upon this view of 
things, it seems highly probable that the first efforts of 
nature terminated in the production of vegetables ; and 
that these, being abandoned to their own energies, by 
degrees detached themselves from the surface of the 
earth, and supplied themselves with wings and feet, 
according as their different propensities determined them 
in favour of aerial and terrestrial existence ; and thus, by 
an inherent disposition to society and civilisation, and by 
a stronger effort of volition, became men. These, in 
time, would restrict themselves to the use of their hind- 



OVID OX THE OEIGIN OF SPECIES, 



217 



feet; and their tails would gradually rub off, by sitting in 
their caves and huts, as soon as they arrived at a domesti- 
cated state. They would invent language, and the use 
of fire, with our present and hitherto imperfect system 
of society. In the meanwhile the fuci and algce, with 
the corallines and madrepores, would transform them- 
selves into fish, and would gradually populate all the 
submarine portion of the globe." 1 

We are inclined to imagine that this amusing theory, 
however opposed it is to Revelation and Science alike, is 
a mere rechauffe of the ancient doctrine of Metempsy- 
chosis, so fully described by Ovid, who quotes a fanatical 
hierophant detailing the process of his manifold regene- 
ration through various stages of animal and vegetable 
]ife. "A second time was I formed. I have been a blue 
salmon ;■ a dog ; a stag ; a roebuck on the mountain ; a 
stock of a tree ; a spade ; an axe in the hand ; a pin in a 
forceps, for a year and a half ; a cock, variegated with 
white ; a horse ; a buck, of yellow hue, in the act of 
feeding. I have been a grain vegetating on a hill, ivhen 
the reaper placed me in a smoky recess, that I might be 
compelled freely to yield my corn, when subject to tribula- 
tion. I teas received by a hen, with red fangs, and re- 
mained nine nights an infant in her womb. 1 have been 
in Hades, returning to my former state. I have been an 
offering before the sovereign. I have died. I have revived ; 
and, conspicuous with my ivy-branch, I have been a 
leader, and by my bounty I became poor." Such were 
the speculations of the heathen of old on the subject of 
the soul's transmigration, and they appear to have found 
faithful imitators in the modern Darwinites. 

Professor Powell has endeavoured to support this in- 
credible theory of the two Darwins, which seriously 



1 Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, p. 128. 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



attempts to make man and a turnip 1 alike originate from 
some " one primordial form," by the introduction of the 
name of Owen, whose authority will be so readily acknow- 
ledged by all lovers of scientific truth. Let us, therefore, 
consider what his opinion really is on the subject at issue. 
" If," says Professor Owen in the appendix to his Lecture 
delivered before the University of Cambridge, " the con- 
sideration of the cranial and dental characters of the 
Troglodytes gorilla has led legitimately to the conclusion 
that it is specifically distinct from the Troglodytes niger, 
the hiatus is still greater that divides it from the human 
species, between the extremest varieties of which there is 
no osteological and dental distinction which can be com- 
pared to that manifested by the shorter premaxillaries 
and larger incisors of the Troglodytes niger as compared 
with the Troglodytes gorilla. . . . The unity of the human 
species is demonstrated by the constancy of those osteo- 
logical and dental characters to which the attention is 
more particularly directed in the investigation of the 
corresponding characters in the higher Quadrumana. 
Man is the sole species of his genus 2 , the sole represen- 
tative of his order and sub-class. Thus I trust has been 
furnished the confutation of the notion of a transforma- 
tion of the ape into man 3 , which apjoears from a favourite 

1 This theory reminds us of the witty lines — 

" If a man who ' turnips ' cries, 
Cry not when his father dies, 
'Tis a proof that he would rather 
Have a turnip for his father ! " 

2 Similar is the testimony of another distinguished anatomist, who 
cannot be suspected of prejudice with regard to this subject. " The 
human species, like that of the cow, sheep, horse, and pig, and others, 
is single ; and all the differences which it exhibits, are to be regarded 
merely as varieties." — Lawrence on Comparative Anatomy, p. 376. 

3 An allusion to the theory propounded by Lord Monboddo, whom 
Dr. Johnson described to Mrs. Thrale as "a Scotch judge, who has 



OWEN ON THE OEIGIN OF SPECIES. 



219 



old author to have been entertained by some in his day : — - 
4 And of a truth, vile epicurism and sensuality will make 
the soul of man so degenerate and blind, that he will not 
only be content to slide into brutish immorality, but please 
himself in this very opinion that he is a real brute al- 
ready, an ape, satyre, or baboon ; and that the best of 
men are no better, saving that civilising of them and in- 
dustrious education has made them appear in a more 
refined shape, and long inculcated precepts have been 
mistaken for connate principles of honesty and natural 
knowledge ; otherwise there be no indispensable grounds 
of religion and virtue, but what has happened to be taken 
up by over-idling custom. Which things, I dare say, 
are as easily confutable as any conclusion in mathematics 
is demonstrable. But as many as are thus sottish, let them 
enjoy their own wildness and ignorance ; it is sufficient for 
a good man that he is conscious unto himself that he is 
more nobly descended, better bred and born, and more 
skilfully taught by the purged faculties of his own 
minde.' " 1 Again, the same " acknowledged authority " 
observes, " As to the successions, or coming in, of new 
species, one might speculate on the gradual modinability 
of the individual ; on the tendency of certain varieties 
to survive local changes, and thus progressively diverge 
from an older type ; on the production and fertility of 
monstrous offspring ; on the possibility, e. g. of a variety 
of the auk being occasionally hatched with a somewhat 
longer winglet, and a dwarfed stature ; — but to what 
purpose ? Past experience of the chance aims of human 
fancy, unchecked and unguided by observed facts, shows 



lately written a strange book about the origin of language, in which he 
traces monkeys up to men, and says that in some countries the human 
species have tails like other beasts. ." — Boswell, vol. iv. p. 73, note. 

1 Owen on the Classification and Geographical Distribution of the 
Mammalia, pp. 102, 103. 



220 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



how widely they have ever glanced away from the golden 
centre of truth. . . . Our most soaring speculations 
still show a kinship to our nature. We see the element 
of finality in so much that we have cognisance of, that it 
must needs mingle with our thoughts, and bias our con- 
clusions on many things. The end of the world has been 
presented to man's mind under divers aspects ; as a 
general conflagration ; as the same, preceded by a mil- 
lennial exaltation of the world to a paradisiacal state — 
the abode of a higher and blessed race of intelligences. 
If the guide-post of palaeontology may seem to point to a 
course ascending to the condition of the latter speculation, 
it points but a very short way, and in leaving it we find 
ourselves in a wilderness of conjecture, where to try to ad- 
vance is to find ourselves ' in wandering mazes lost.' " 1 

We give the mature testimony of another " acknow- 
ledged authority " on this subject. " The entire variation 
from the original type, which any given kind of change 
can produce, may usually be effected in a brief period of 
time," says Sir Charles Lyell ; " after which no further 
deviation can be obtained by continuing to alter the cir- 
cumstances, though ever so gradually ; indefinite diver- 
gence, either in the way of improvement or deterioration, 
being prevented, and the least possible excess beyond the 
defined limits being fatal to the individual." 2 

And we add the testimony of one, who, if not so " ac- 
knowledged " an " authority " as those we have already 
quoted, since he dedicates his work to Mr.. Darwin him- 
self, can be no unfriendly critic of the subject in ques- 
tion. " It does appear strange," observes Mr. Woolaston, 
" that naturalists who have combined great synthetic 



1 Owen on the Classification and Geographical Distribution of the 
Mammalia, pp. 58, 61. 

2 Principles of Geology, ch. xxxvi. p. 61, 9th ed. 



LYELL ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 



221 



qualities with a profound knowledge of minutias and 
detail, should ever have upheld so monstrous a doctrine 
as that of the transmutation of one species into another ', 
a doctrine, however, which arises almost spontaneously, 
if we are to assume that there exists in every race the 
tendency to unlimited progressive improvement. 
The whole theory is full of inconsistencies from beginning 
to end ; and, from whatever point we view it, is equally 
unsound from beginning to end." 1 

Thus the 44 natural selection " theory of Darwin, on 
which the Essayist fondly relies for overthrowing the 
plain statements of Scripture respecting 44 the Origin of 
Species," is denied and rejected as unworthy of consi- 
deration by those 44 acknowledged masters" of the subject 
from whose works we have quoted in preference to any 
mere assertion of our own. At the same time, we cannot 
forbear remarking upon the boundless credulity which 
the disciples of the rationalistic school in general, and 
Professor Powell in particular, display when any theory, 
however wild and unfounded it be, is propounded by a 
human creature like Darwin, or Lamarck, or the author 
of the " Vestiges of a Natural History," compared with 
the 44 painful scepticism " they exhibit towards those 
rational statements which claim to be made on the 
authority of the Creator Himself. 

We would, however, fain hope, as we catch a glimmer 
of light towards the close of the Essay which we have 
thus examined, that better feelings actuated the late Pro- 
fessor Baden Powell before being summoned to that 
bourne whence there is no return ; and that 44 the spirit 
of faith," which we rejoice to find him saying 44 discovers 
continually increasing attestation of the Divine authority 
of the truths they include " (p. 144), may have had its 



1 Op. Cit. pp. 186-8. 



222 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



due effect upon his own soul previous to that unseen 
future when faith and hope shall cease, as being no 
longer required, or rather as being absorbed in that 
boundless love, which, as being " the greatest," or most 
lasting, will abide for evermore, 



MOSAIC 



COSMOGONY. 



CHAP. IV. 

We now arrive at a break, or, as the geologists would 
term it, " a fault," in the series of Clerical Essayists. Mr. 
Goodwin, the author of the " Mosaic Cosmogony," being 
a layman, is necessarily less open to the same amount 
of censure to which his brother Essayists have been ex- 
posed, the public naturally and very properly making a 
distinction between those who may be described as law- 
fully exercising the right of free warren in their Biblical 
investigations, and others who are bound not only by 
their profession in general, but by their obligations as 
clergymen of the Church of England in particular, to 
stand up in defence of the inspiration, the perfection, and 
the scientific accuracy of God's word as revealed to man. 

Nevertheless, Mr. Goodwin, without propounding any 
peculiar theory of his own, has contented himself with 
the part of a true Ishmaelite in raising his hand not only 
against " the Mosaic Cosmogony," as set forth in the two 
first chapters of Genesis, but against the most eminent 
geologists, who have endeavoured to show the harmony 
which exists between the statements in Scripture and 
the discoveries of modern science. It would have been 
a happy thing for the author of the Essay before us if 
he had only attained to the reasonable decision of the 



224 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



German philosopher Fichte, when he returned this answer 
to the question which he himself propounded : — " Who 
educated the first human pair? A spirit took them 
under his care, as is laid down in an ancient, venerable, 
original document, which contains the deepest and the sub- 
limest wisdom, and presents results to which all philosophy 
must at length return." 1 Why this frank admission on 
the part of one distinguished for his rationalism ? Simply 
because, in reference to the subject before us, scientific 
truth, rightly understood, is in reality religious truth. 
Ought we not therefore to echo the sentiment of that 
great writer, who, without possessing a revelation from 
God on high, could yet declare ? — " Than Truth, no 
greater blessing can man receive, or the gods bestow." 2 

Hence, as one more eminent than Plutarch has well 
observed in later times, " Truth is compared in Scripture 
to a streaming fountain ; if her waters flow not in a 
perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of 
conformity and tradition." 3 Nothing can be more con- 
vincing as regards the force of this remark of our great 
poet than by contrasting the wonderful advance in every 
department of science during the last three centuries, with 
that "muddy pool of conformity and tradition," which 
existed and flourished when Galileo was condemned 
by the gross ignorance of the Church of Eome for 
asserting what is now recognised as one of the elements 
of astronomical science, though still (if rumour does 



1 Quoted by Dr. Dereser of Breslaw in his translation of the Bible, 
with annotations by himself and others, vol. i. p. 16. John Gottlieb 
Fichte died a.d. 1814, and there is good reason to believe that several 
years before his death he renounced the sceptical opinions for which 
he had been once unhappily famous. 

2 Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, § 1. 

3 Milton's Areopagitica. 



THE MOSAIC EECOED. 



225 



not belie him) consistently denied by the present papal 
representative in the sister kingdom of Ireland. 1 

Mr. Goodwin, eschewing all notice of the eighty futile 
attempts by the members of the French Institute, and to 
which we have already called attention 2 , to find a system 
in accordance with their preconceived notions, all hostile 
to the Mosaic record, makes the following candid state- 
ment : — "It must be observed that in reality two dis- 
tinct accounts are given us in the book of Genesis, one 
being comprised in the first chapter and the first three 
verses of the second, the other commencing at the fourth 
verse of the second chapter and continuing till the end. 
This is so philologically certain that it were useless to ignore 
it. But even those who may be inclined to contest the 
fact that we have here the productions of two different 
writers, will admit that the account beginning at the first 
verse of the first chapter, and ending at the third verse 
of the second, is a complete whole in itself. And to this 
narrative, in order not to complicate the subject unne- 
cessarily, we intend to confine ourselves. It will be suf- 
ficient for our purpose to inquire, whether this account 
can be shown to be in accordance with our astronomical 
and geological knowledge." 3 

Here are three statements or deductions. We question 
the first, deny the second, and propose to examine the 
third. We cannot accept his proposed division in the first 
two chapters of Genesis, as our future remarks will show, 
nor can we admit that there are " two distinct accounts " 



1 "A living ecclesiastic," says Hugh Miller, " of the Romish Church 
in Ireland, Father (now Archbishop) Cnllen, holds that the sun is pos- 
sibly only a fathom in diameter." — Testimony of the Rocks, p. 384. 

2 See p. 198. 

3 Essays and Reviews, p. 217. 

Q 



226 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



of the act of the demiurgic creation as recorded by Moses. 
We not only " contest the fact " of its being the produc- 
tion of " two different writers," but we may remark that 
the Essayist has, with the usual caution of sceptics, ab- 
stained from advancing the slightest ground for this pre- 
posterous dogma, which nobody with the slightest pre- 
tensions to Biblical criticism will admit for a moment. 
He might with equal reason dogmatically affirm that the 
first and second books of Paradise Lost were not written 
by Milton, as put forth this unfounded and unsupported 
theory of " the two distinct accounts " of creation in 
Genesis being " the productions of two different writers." 
And we readily accept his challenge by endeavouring to 
show that the one uniform account of creation, as set 
forth in the first two chapters of Genesis, is, like every 
other statement in Holy Scripture, in perfect accordance 
with all real Science, as far as astronomical and geological 
discoveries have extended. 

There have been three different modes of interpreting 
" the Mosaic cosmogony " as set forth in the Bible, which 
may be thus summarily defined. 

First " The old views," to which, according to Mr. 
Goodwin, " the Eomish Church adheres to the present 
day " (p. 208), which interpreted the passage " In the 
beginning God created the heaven and the earth " to 
mean about 6000 years ago, when all the geological strata, 
together with the present animal and vegetable life, were 
first called into existence by the fiat of the great Creator. 
Voetius a Dutch divine of the seventeenth century defined 
" the old views " in the following manner : — " We affirm 
that the sun flies round the earth every twenty-four hours, 
and that the earth rests immovable in the centre of the 
universe, with all divines, natural philosophers and astro- 
nomers, Jews and Mahomedans, Greeks and Latins, ex- 
cepting one or two of the ancients, and the modern 



OPINIONS RESPECTING THE MOSAIC RECORD. 



227 



followers of Copernicus." 1 There is, however, good reason 
to believe that some of the ancients had a right concep- 
tion of the face and shape of the earth nearly 2000 years 
before the time of Copernicus, if we admit the proposed 
rendering of a passage in Plato's Timgeus with Aristotle's 
comment thereon. For thus the former expressed himself 
on the subject : " He made the earth to be the nurse of 
mankind, and by her rotation (jAAo/aIv^) round the cos- 
mical pole, the guardian and creator of day and night." 
And thus the latter comments upon it : " All those who 
do not make the earth the centre of the system, make her 
rotate round the centre ; and some even of those who place 
her at the centre say she rotates (po^sa-bou) round the 
cosmical axis, as we read in the Timgeus." 2 

Second. The modern opinion, which may be said to 
have prevailed as scientific discoveries were made, and 
which, confining the work of creation, as described in the 
first chapter of Genesis, to six natural days of twenty- 
four hours' duration, extends the expression " In the 
beginning," to a period of indescribable length, and suf- 
ficiently long to allow for the very slow formation of the 
various strata in the earth which the Science of geology 
has brought to fight. 

Third. Another and still newer opinion is that which 
would account for the enormous time required for the 
formation of these strata by understanding each of " the 
six days," to mean periods of undefined length. 

Let us consider which of these three opinions mostly 
accords with what Scripture has revealed, and modern 
science confirmed. 

§ 1. It is certainly much to be lamented that well-in- 
tentioned but grievously mistaken persons have imagined 



1 Gisb. Voetii, Disput. Theol. vol. i. p. 637. 

2 Aristotle, De Ccelo, ii. § 13. 



228 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



that the science of geology, which, if. compared with its 
elder sister astronomy, may be still described as in its 
infancy, militates in any degree against the unerring word 
of God. We admit that geological speculations have 
done so, as we have before noticed, and may continue so 
to do ; but the Science of geology never can, because the 
correct definition of that term necessarily forbids it. 
When, however, we find professed ministers of the gospel 
defending what they honestly believe to be the cause of 
truth, at the expense of common sense, as well as the 
plain inference from Scripture, we are compelled to de- 
clare such interpretations and explanations of the sacred 
text do more harm than good to the cause which the 
advocates of the same are very properly anxious to de- 
fend. Take for instance the following : — In the St. 
Petersburg Museum there is to be seen the skeleton of a 
mammoth (of so gigantic a size that the skeleton of a large 
elephant which stands beside it bears the relative pro- 
portion to it which a pony thirteen hands high does to a 
brewer's dray horse), discovered some years ago in a 
glacier in Siberia, with the flesh so well preserved that the 
wolves and bears were found holding a festival on its 
carcase. Yet a writer, who terms his work " A brief 
and complete Eefutation of the Anti-Scriptural Theory 
of Geologists," 1 has the confidence to argue in defence 
of his mistaken theory that this " mammoth had not ne- 
cessarily been a living creature (but that) it was created 
under the ice, and preserved in that peculiar form of pre- 
servation instead of being transmuted into stone, like the_, 
rest of its class." 

Or consider the way in which the late Dean of York 
endeavoured to reconcile the formation of the strata of 



1 See a work with that title, " By a Clergyman of the Church of 
England," London, "Wertheim and Mackintosh, 1853. 



THE LATE DEAN OF YORK ON THE DELUGE. 229 

the carboniferous era at the time of the Deluge, with 
his theory that all the fossils discovered are not older 
than the human race, and that the creation of the heavens 
and the earth commenced 6000 years ago. We state it 
in the words of that eminent Christian geologist, whose 
powers of description elicited such warm praise from Dr. 
Buckland, at the Glasgow meeting of the British Asso- 
ciation for the advancement of science. " The Dean," 
wrote Hugh Miller in his inimitable style, " conceives 
that at the commencement of the Flood, when torrents 
of rain were falling upon the land, numerous submarine 
volcanoes began to disgorge their molten contents into 
the sea, destroying the fish, and all other marine pro- 
ductions, by the intensity of the heat, and at the same 
time locking them up in strata formed of the erupted 
matter. This process took place ere the land-floods, 
laden with the spoils of island and continent, and the 
accompanying mud and sand, could arrive at the remoter 
depths ; which however they ultimately reached, and 
formed a second formation, overlying the first. There 
were thus two formations originated — a marine formation 
below, and a terrestrial or fresh- water formation above ; 
but as these two deposits could not be made to include 
all the geological phenomena with which even the Dean 
was acquainted, he had nicely to parcel out the work of 
his volcanoes on the one hand, and that of his land floods 
on the other, into separate fits or paroxysms, each of 
which served to entomb a distinct class of creatures, and 
originate a definite set of rocks. Thus, the first work of 
his volcanoes was to form the Transition series of strata. 
As a commencement of the whole, the internal fire blew 
up from the bed of the ocean, in tremendous explosions, 
vast quantities of pulverised rock mixed with clay, which, 
slowly subsiding, and covering up, as it sank, shells, stone- 
lilies, and trilobites, formed the Silurian rocks. A second 

Q 3 



230 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



explosion brought up the vents of the volcanoes to the 
level of the ocean ; and while the old red sandstone, thus 
produced and charged with fish killed by the heat, was 
settled on their flanks, they themselves, as if seized by 
black vomit, began to disgorge in vast quantities, coal in 
the liquid state. Very opportunely, just ere it cooled, 
enormous quantities of vegetables, washed out to the sea 
by the extraordinary land-floods, were precipitated imme- 
diately over it ; and sticking in its viscid surface, or sink- 
ing into its substance through cracks formed in it during 
the cooling, they became attached to it in such consider- 
able masses, as to lead long after to the very mistaken 
notion that coal itself was of vegetable origin. Then 
there ensued another deposit of red sand, with salt boiled 
into it, and then a deposition of lhne and clay. The 
land-floods still continuing, the great sauroid reptiles 
which had haunted the rivers and lower plains, began to 
yield to their force, and their carcases, floating out to sea, 
sank amid the slowly subsiding lime and clay, now known 
as the Lias. The volcanoes, too, were still very active, 
and the lighter shells, ammonites, and the like, which 
had been previously bobbing up and down on the boil- 
ing surface, now sank by myriads ; for the viscid argilla- 
ceous mud thrown up by the fiery ebullitions from be- 
neath stuck fast to them, and dragged them down. Then 
came the formation of the Oolite, rolled into little egg- 
like pellets by the waves ; and, last of all, the greensand 
and chalk ; after which the waters ran off, and sank into 
the deep hollow which now forms the bed of the ocean, 
but which, previous to the cataclysm, had been the place 
of the land. The Dean, as he went on, fell into some 
little confusion regarding the true place of some of his 
animals, such as the megatherium, which arrived in his 
arrangement a little too soon. He spoke, too, — if a 
newspaper report is to be credited, — of a heavy creature 



EXTRAORDINARY HYPOTHESIS. 



231 



soon overtaken and drowned by the rising waters, which 
he termed the ptero-dactyhis, and which does not seem to 
have turned up, either in the body or out of it, since it 
was lost on that memorable occasion. Nor did he make 
any provision in his arrangement for the formation of the 
various Tertiary deposits. But then all these are slight 
matters, that could be very easily woven into his hypo- 
thesis. As the flood rose along the hill-sides, first such 
of the weightier animals would perish as could not readily 
climb steep acclivities ; and then the oxen, the horses, the 
deer, and the goats, with the lighter carnivora 5 who, as 
they would die last, — some of them not until the final 
disappearance of the hill tops, — would of course be en- 
tombed in the upper deposits. Such is the hypothesis of 
the Dean of York — an hypothesis of which it may be 
justly affirmed, that it is well nigh as ingenious as the 
circumstances of the case permit, and against which little 
else can be urged than that it must seem rather cum- 
brous and fanciful to the class who don't know geology, 
and, on the whole, somewhat inadequate to the class 
who do." 1 

Had these worthy clergymen, and those who agree with 
them in supposing that the heavens and the earth, with 
all its fossil remains, have been called into being within 
the last 6000 years, paid a very moderate amount of 
attention to what Scripture teaches on this point, they 
would have escaped the exposure to which they have 
fairly laid themselves open, on the part of one who was 
pre-eminently competent to discover the accordance be- 
tween Revelation and Science, as the writings of the late 
Hugh Miller manifestly prove. When we remembered 
that the Holy Spirit has used the same term, " In the 



1 The Testimony of the Rocks ; or Geology in its Bearings on the 
Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed, pp. 391 — 397. 

q 4 . 



232 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



beginning," to define the time when God called the 
heavens and the earth into existence, and also the period 
of the begetting of the Eternal Son 1 , we see at once the 
impossibility of accepting the theory which limits the 
stupendous work of creation to the time when man was 
originally formed. Why should those excellent Christians, 
who do not doubt for an instant the fact of the great 
Creator having existed from all eternity, — why should 
they reject, as preposterous, the idea of going back 
millions of years in the history of his works ? It will be 
sufficient, however, at present, to bear in mind that those 
who contend in favour of the heavens and the earth 
having been called into existence about 6000 years ago, 
are contradicting the express testimony of Scripture. 

§ 2. " Geology," said Sir John Herschel, " in the mag- 
nitude and sublimity of the objects which it treats, 
undoubtedly ranks, in the scale of the sciences, next to 
astronomy." When this Science had attained such an 
interesting position, which it may be considered to have 
done at the beginning of the present century, it was 
natural that the interpretation of Genesis i. 1, for dating 
the creation of the heavens and the earth within 6000 
years, was given up by every scientific investigator of the 
works, as well as of the word of God. At the same 
time, such eminent men as Chalmers and Buckland, who 
combined the study of geology with the deepest respect 
for the Revelation which God had given to man, were 
satisfied with understanding that passage of Scripture to 
express the undefinable period during which all the 
geological strata were formed ; but the six clays of the 
demi-urgic creation were to be understood as natural days 
of twenty-four hours each, — - comprising the entire work 



1 Compare the language of the Psalmist, ii. 7, and of Isaiah, xliii. 
1 3, with that of St. John, i. 1 : " In the beginning was the Word," &c. 



HUGH MILLER'S HYPOTHESIS. 



233 



of creation, as regards the present animal and vegetable 
life, — and that the latest of the geologic ages was 
separated by a great chaotic gap from our own. This 
was what Hugh Miller once accepted as a satisfactory 
solution of a confessedly difficult subject. He subse- 
quently rejected it on mere geological grounds. But as 
we are chiefly concerned with its theological bearings, it 
will be sufficient, for the present, to remark that the 
limitation of the word " day," as used in the first chapter 
of Genesis, to a period of twenty-four hours, must be 
rejected, for both positive and negative reasons. Eeserving 
the former for future notice, we may safely assume, re- 
specting the latter, that since a day of twenty-four hours 
is a mere definition of limited time to express one revolu- 
tion of the earth on its axis, during which it receives and 
loses the benefit of that " greater luminary," which God 
appointed " to rule the day," and which did not take 
place until what is termed " the fourth day " of creation, 
we have no Scripture warrant for assuming that the three 
previous " days " to that arrangement, on the part of the 
Almighty Creator, are to be understood in the same 
hmited sense as that which the word now bears. 

§ 3. Hugh Miller, dissatisfied with the above inter- 
pretation of limiting the days of creation to twenty-four 
hours each, adopted the theory of considering them to 
represent periods of undefined length, during which the 
whole of the present geological strata, with their fossil 
remains, were formed. This has been thus stated and 
answered by Dr. Buckland : "A third opinion has been 
suggested, both by learned theologians and geologists, 
and on grounds independent of one another, viz. that 
the days of the Mosaic creation need not be understood 
to imply the same length of time which is now occupied 
by a single revolution of the globe, but successive periods, 
each of great extent ; and it has been asserted that the 



234 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



order of succession of the organic remains of a former 
world accords with the order of creation recorded in 
Genesis. This assertion, though to a certain degree 
apparently correct, is not entirely supported by geological 
facts, since it appears that the most ancient marine 
animals occur in the same division of the lowest transition 
strata with the earliest remains of vegetables ; so that the 
evidence of organic remains, as far as it goes, shows the 
origin of plants and animals to have been contemporaneous: 
if any creation of vegetables preceded that of animals, no 
evidence of such an event has yet been discovered by the 
researches of geology. Still there is, I believe, no sound 
critical or theological objection to the interpretation of 
the word ' day ' as meaning a long period ; but there will 
be no necessity for such extension, in order to reconcile 
the text of Genesis with physical appearances, if it can be 
shown that the time indicated by the phenomena of 
geology may be found in the undefined interval following 
the announcement of the first verse." 1 

Agreeing with Dr. Buckland that there is " no sound 
critical or theological objection to the interpretation of 
the word ' day ' as meaning a long period," though differ- 
ing from Hugh Miller as to its being of undefined length, 
we shall endeavour to show, by a minute examination of 
what is said in the first chapter of Genesis on the subject, 
that the literal statements of Scripture are in such exact 
and perfect agreement with the discoveries of modern 
science that we may fairly point to then" accordance as 
one of the strongest proofs of the Pentateuch being, as it 
professes to be, the inspired word of God. This, of 
course, is in direct antagonism to the opinions of Mr. 
Goodwin, who considers " the Mosaic account to be 
simply the speculation of some early Copernicus or 

1 Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 17, 18, 



THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY. 



235 



Newton, who devised a scheme of the earth's formation, 
as nearly as he might in accordance with his own obser- 
vations of nature, and with such views of things as it 
was possible for an unassisted thinker in those days to 
take " 1 

Genesis i. 1. — "In the beginning God created the 
heavens and the earth," is the first utterance of the Divine 
mind, according to the rendering of our admirable 
authorised version. Were there no more in this sentence 
than what is conveyed by the English translation, we 
admit the case would not appear as strong as it really is, 
when we refer to the original. Nevertheless, as we have 
already remarked, the very expression, "In the beginning," 
used here and by St. John, to define the period when " the 
Word was," is sufficient proof that it must have reference 
to what we vainly attempt to describe as the commence- 
ment of eternity, and can have nothing to do with any 
limit of time, according to the feeble and imperfect 
standard of man. The Hebrew, however, shows this still 
plainer. According to the celebrated French philologist 
D'Olivet, the root of the word translated, " In the be- 
ghming," consists of the two letters ft and C^, — the former 
signifying " a principle " or " centre," and the latter, when 
coupled with it, meaning, " a portion of a circle with a 
radius." So that the word maybe understood to refer to 
" a power emanating from a centre ; " and the more 
sublime and exact rendering would be, " In his princi- 
piating energy." Blessing might also be understood or 
implied in the term, in which case the recondite meaning 
of this first sentence of the Mosaic cosmogony would 
run, " In the principle of his blessing and energy," &c. 
The Hebrew word for " God " being in the plural number, 
followed by a verb in the singular, is a clear indication of 



1 Essays and Eeviews, p. 247. 



236 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



the Trinity in Unity 1 being referred to, as every Jew, 
when " the veil is removed from his heart in reading 
Moses," 2 is only too ready to admit. The verb "created " 
means original formation, and is distinct from another 
verb used in the same chapter, which signifies reformed, 
or " made," as our translators have properly rendered it. 
The expression, " the heavens and the earth," falls very 
short of the full force of the Hebrew original. Literally 
it would be, " the essence of the heavens and the essence 
of the earth." Alexander, an Hebrew professor, in com- 
menting on the verse, observes, "fift 3 , according to the 
Jewish commentators, is always an implication ; here it is 
a tacit inference of all the hosts of heaven ; and in every 
other place it implies something more than is expressed." 
The omission of so important a word in our version has 
prevented the English reader from realising the full force 
of the original, and has helped, as we believe, to preserve 
the delusion under which some men in the present day 
are labouring, in supposing the original creation of the 
heavens and the earth took place about 6000 years ago. 
Keeping, therefore, to the letter as well as to the spirit of 
Scripture, we may paraphrase the first two verses of 



1 It is remarkable that the chief heathen cosmogonies, whether 
Hindoo, Chinese, Pythagorean, Orphic, or Platonic, so far as regards 
the Being who was considered as the animating Soul and demiurgic 
Principle of the Universe, seem to be contained in the words of the 
oracle which Patricius cites from Damascius: — " Through the whole 
world shines a triad, over which presides a monad.' 1 '' — Damas. a/pud 
Cudworth, Intell. Syst. 

2 2 Cor. iii. 15. 

3 Buxtorf, in his Talmudic Lexicon, says, "The particle J") ft, with 
the Cabalists is often mystically put for the beginning and the e?id, as 
Alpha and Omega are in the ApocalyjDse." The Syriac version has 
yoth, which signifies essence, or substance, and is very properly trans- 
lated in Walton's Polyglott, " Esse cosli et esse terra" 



ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE. 



237 



Genesis as follows : — " In the very commencement of His 
work, manifesting power and blessing (when the Logos 
was), Elohim, i. e. the Trinity, or the three Persons united 
in Godhead, originally created the essence of the heavens 
and the essence of the earth. Afterwards the earth be- 
came waste and desolate, when chaos existed upon the 
surface of the deep. And the Spirit of Elohim brooded 
upon the surface of the waters." It will be seen that the 
rendering of verse 2 is somewhat different from our 
English version, which reads the passage, "And the earth 
was without form and void," as if the two verses were in 
immediate connection, as regards time ; whereas we be- 
lieve the first verse clearly points to the original creation 
of the universe, and the second refers to the period when 
God thought fit to prepare the earth for the habitation of 
man. The translation we have adopted has the sanction 
of Dr. Dathe of Leipzig, a cautious and judicious critic, 
does no violence to the Hebrew idiom, and is the only way 
of reconciling Scripture with the discoveries of geology. 

Let us hear what Science teaches us respecting the 
essence of the heavens and of the earth, which God called 
into existence at the commencement of the manifestation 
of his creative power. We learn that our solar system 
consists of three differently-constituted parts, viz. the 
sun ; the planets, with their respective satellites ; and 
comets. And w T e have proof that those beautiful stars, 
with which, the heavens are bespangled on every side, 
and which appear to us with such different degrees of 
lustre, are bodies possessing inherent light, and therefore 
have been appropriately termed suns to other systems, — 
each one having, as we may infer from analogy, its atten- 
dant train of primaries, and their satellites. Of the con- 
stitution of comets, it is not necessary to say much. We 
know but little of them, but, happily, sufficient to correct 



238 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



the vulgar prejudice in former times 1 respecting their evil 
effects, as well as the mistaken idea concerning the possi- 
bility of the earth being annihilated, upon coming into 
contact with one of them. There is a case on record in 
which a comet is beheved to have passed among the 
satellites of Jupiter without affecting them in the slightest 
degree, although the comet itself, by the attraction of the 
planet, was so strongly affected that its orbit was com- 
pletely changed. And it has been assumed that our earth 
might pass safely through the nucleus of a comet without 
being affected any more than London by a November fog. 
As all the works of God have their respective uses, we 
may accept the theory of Sir Isaac Newton, in regard to 
comets. " As the seas are necessary," he observes, " to 
the constitution of our earth, in order that the sun, by 
his heat, may exhale from them a sufficient quantity of 
vapour, which, being collected in clouds, may descend in 
rains and water, and nourish all the earth, for the pro- 
duction of vegetables ; or being condensed by the cold 
summits of mountains, may run down in springs and 



1 As late as the present century we find a writer in the " Gentleman's 
Magazine," for 1818, gravely ascribing the badness of the harvest, the 
paucity of wasps, the blindness of the flies, and the frequency of the 
birth of twins (a woman at Whitechapel that year had four children at 
a birth ! !), to the influence of the great comet of 1811. That of 1668 
was discovered to have produced a remarkable epidemic among cats in 
Westphalia. The comet of 1456 was thought to presage the terrible 
success of the Turks, who had recently taken Constantinople and struck 
terror into the Christian world; and drew down upon, we may suppose, 
its head and tail alike the thunders of the Church, as Pope Calixtus II. 
exorcised the Turks and the comet in the same Bull. To the comet of 
590 was ascribed a fearful plague which prevailed in that year, in the 
crisis of which the patients were seized with paroxysms of sneezing, 
often followed by death. The usual benediction "God bless you!" 
addressed by the bystanders to the sufferer, is said to have originated a 
custom which has been continued to the present day. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE SUN. 



239 



rivers ; so cornets seern to be required for the conservation 
of the seas and fluids of planets, in order that, from their 
condensed exhalations and vapours, the water consumed 
in vegetables and putrefaction, and converted into dry 
earth, may be continually replaced and supplied." 

With regard to the constitution of the Sun, our con- 
ception of its structure would naturally lead us to suppose 
it a solid globe of burning material emitting light and 
heat, just as a red-hot ball of metal invariably displays. 
There was one person, however, some centuries ago, who 
appears to have had clearer conceptions of the real 
nature of the Sun. 1 Humboldt quotes from the writings 
of Cardinal Kicolaus de Cusa, who lived in the fifteenth 
century, which show the opinion he entertained of its 
constitution. He considered that the body of the sun 
itself was only " an earth-like nucleus, surrounded by a 
circle of light as by a delicate envelope ; that between 
them was a mixture of water charged clouds, and clear 
air similar to our atmosphere ; and that the power of 
radiating heat to vivify the vegetation of our earth, does 
not appertain to the earthly nucleus of the sun's body, 
but to the luminous covering by which it is surrounded." 
A wonderful idea this, considering that it was entertained 
previous to the invention of the telescope, by whose aid 
these crude thoughts concerning the physical condition 
of the body of the sun have been amply verified under 



1 A trial, which took place in this country towards the close of the 
last century, affords a curious illustration of the opinions of our fathers 
regarding the sun. A certain Dr. Elliott maintained, in the year 1787, 
that the light of the sun arose from what he called a dense and universal 
twilight, and he also believed that the sun might be inhabited. When 
tried subsequently at the Old Bailey for having occasioned the death of 
Miss Boydell, Dr. Simmons, and other friends, successfully contended 
that he was mad, upon the grounds that his theory regarding the light 
of the sun abundantly proved it ! 



240 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



the searching investigations of Sir W. Herschel and M. 
Arago. According to the present condition of our astro- 
nomical knowledge, the sun is composed, as the latter 
writes, — "1st. Of a central sphere which is nearly dark ; 
2nd. Of a vast stratum of clouds, suspended from the 
central body which it surrounds on all sides ; 3rd. Of 
a photosphere, or in other words, a luminous sphere in- 
closing the cloudy stratum, which in its turn surrounds 
the dark nucleus. The total eclipse of the 8th of July, 
1842, afforded indications of a third envelope, situated 
above the photosphere, and formed of dark, or faintly 
illuminated clouds. These clouds of the third solar en- 
velope, apparently situated during the total eclipse on the 
margin of the sun, or even a little beyond it, gave rise to 
those singular rose-coloured protuberances, which so 
powerfully excited the attention of the scientific world in 
1842." 

Sir W. Herschel calculated that the light reflected 
outwards by the clouds of the inferior stratum, was 
equal to 469 rays out of 1000, or less than half the 
light of the outward stratum, and that the light reflected 
by the opaque body of the sun below was only seven 
rays out of every 1000 ; a proof that the light of the 
outward stratum, and consequently its heat, must be ex- 
tremely small upon the dark body of the luminary, which 
we see through what are called the solar spots, but now 
proved to be openings in the luminous stratum. We 
may then safely assume that the great luminary which 
hath been appointed by God to rule the day, is, in a 
material form, of the same nature as the earth, with the 
addition of being surrounded by a phosphorescent en- 
velope, and by like reasoning, that the fixed stars, or suns 
to other systems, are composed in a similar way. 

But it is the constitution of the planet we inhabit, 
with which we are more particularly concerned, and of 



M. ARAGO'S EXPERIMENTS. 



241 



which we have necessarily more certain knowledge than 
any other part of creation. Notwithstanding the idea, 
which was once entertained by Haliey in the seventeenth 
century, and which has been resumed in our own day \ of 
the essence, or interior of the earth, consisting of a hollow 
sphere peopled with plants, animals, and even two small 
revolving planets, prospectively named Pluto and Pro- 
serpine, it is now generally admitted that the vast in- 
terior of our planet consists of liquid fire. The experi- 
ments made by M. Arago in the gardens of the Obser- 
vatory at Paris, with thermometers sunk in the earth at 
various depths, by which it appears that the heat increases 
on an average of 1° for every 54*5 feet, prove that our 
globe once existed as an intensely heated body in a fluid 
state, though the period when it was entirely incandescent 
must have been so remote as to defy all calculation. In 
some carefully conducted experiments during the sinking 
of the Dukingfield Deep Mine — one of the deepest pits 
in England — it was found that a mean increase of about 
1° in seventy-one feet occurred, which would require a 
depth of between fifty and sixty miles before arriving at 
fluidity. Mr. Pairbairn, however, pointed out in his 
inaugural address at the meeting of the British Associa- 
tion in the year 1861, that even "this deduction requires 



1 Humboldt amusingly relates in his " Cosmos " (vol. i. p. 163), that 
the entrance of this tunnel to the earth's interior was supposed to be 
near the North Pole, whence the polar light emanates, and that he and 
Sir Humphry Davy were publicly invited by Captain Symmes to 
conduct an exploring expedition to this terra incognita. Holberg, a 
learned Norwegian of the early part of the last century, published a 
witty satire in Latin on the institutions, morals, and manners of the 
inhabitants of the Upper Crust, combining in his title " a new theory 
of the earth, with his subterranean journey, and a history of the fifth 
monarchy still unknown." Yet notwithstanding, the theory has been 
revived, as we have seen, in the enlightened nineteenth century. 

R 



2-12 



REVELATION .AND SCIENCE. 



to be modified by other considerations, viz. the influence 
of pressure on the fusing points, and the relative con- 
density of the rocks which form the earth's crust." So 
that Science does not yet enable us to speak with cer- 
tainty of the depth of the earth's crust, and consequently 
we must wait the result of the experiments which are 
being now carried on by Mr. Hopkins *, before we have 
anything like certain data to go upon for estimating the 
time it took in forming. 

Now heat, according to the theory of Bacon and New- 
ton, being derived from the same origin as light, viz. 
vibrations of the ethereal fluid, propagated through space 
with inconceivable velocity, we may believe that to be 
the essence of the heavens and the earth, which the great 
Creator of all (one of whose chief characteristics is light, 
as we • learn by Revelation 2 ) called into existence " in 
the beginning " of the manifestation of His power. In 
course of countless ages this heat-spot or fiery mist gra- 
dually cooled at the surface, probably by exposure in 
space, contracting in dimensions as it cooled and hard- 
ened. 3 By experiments on the rate of coohng lavas and 
melted basalt, it has been calculated by M. Bone that 



1 Sir R. Murcliiscm, in his address to the Geological Section of the 
British Association, a.d. 1861, stated that Mr. Hopkins considers that 
the thickness of the earth's crust nmst be two or three times as great 
as that which has been usually considered to be indicated by the 
observed increase of temperature at accessible depths beneath the 
earth's surface. 

2 1. Ep. John, i. 5. 

3 As the coal of Baffin's Bay and of the torrid zone alike prove by 
the fossil forms which they contain, that more than a tropical tempera- 
ture once existed in the regions of perpetual frost, it can only be ex- 
plained upon the principle of the internal heat of the earth, which 
during the early ages of the carboniferous era must have had so much 
thinner a crust than now, and must have received heat from another 
source than that which God has ordained at this present time. 



THE CRUST OF THE EARTH. 



243 



9,000,000 of years are required for the earth to lose 14° 
Eeaumur, and that the time which must have elapsed in 
passing from liquid fire to a solid crust, may be estimated 
at 350,000,000 years. This primary crust, composed of 
the plutonic, or older igneous, and the volcanic, or more 
modern rocks, including granite, serpentine, greenstone, 
porphyry, basalt, lava, and others, forms the solid frame- 
work of our globe, and shows internal marks of having 
once existed in a state of igneous fusion. Above these 
are found the metamorphic rocks, such as mica gneiss, 
mica, hornblende, &c, all alike being destitute of any 
sign of organic life, and are variously described as Azoic, 
or Hypozoic, or non-fossiliferous. How long a period 
elapsed between the first cooling of the fiery fluid, and 
the first appearance of organised life, we have not the 
most remote idea, as we have no basis for a calculation ; 
but judging from the previous rate of cooling, according 
to the estimate already given, as well as from the time 
required for the formation of certain fossiliferous strata 
which we shall have occasion hereafter to notice, it 
must have been a period of enormous duration. 

The fossiliferous rocks, with upwards of sixty different 
strata in various groups, extending from the Cambrian 
with the first symptom of life, to the Pleistocene, the 
nearest to the present alluvial surface, have been usefully 
divided by geologists into three series, consisting of the 
Palaeozoic or Primary, Mesozoic or Secondary, and the 
Cainozoic or Tertiary. It is not our purpose to examine 
at any length the different geological strata 1 into which 



1 M. D'Orbigny lias shown, in his Prodome de Pcdceontologie, that 
there have been at least twenty-nine distinct periods of animal and 
vegetable existence. If, however, we connt all the different geological 
strata separately which envelope the earth, we find the whole number 
amounts to upwards of sixty. There is a curious analogy in com- 

k 2 



244 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



these series have been divided ; it will be sufficient if we 
notice, very briefly, the conclusions at which geologists 
have arrived respecting the time required for the for- 
mation of some small portions of the present crust of 
the earth, which, as we have already remarked, has been 
estimated at about two hundred miles in depth, of the 
eight thousand which constitute the diameter of the 
globe. Thus Mr. Babbage considers it as a truth sup- 
ported by irresistible evidence, that " the formation even 
of those strata which are nearest the surface, must have 
occupied vast periods, probably millions of years. " 1 " The 
great tract of peat, near Stirling, has demanded two thou- 
sand years," observes Mr. Macculloch, " for its registry is 
preserved by the Eoinan works below it. It is but a 
single bed of coal : shall we multiply it by 100 ? We 
shall not exceed — far from it — did we allow 200,000 
years for the production of the coal series of Newcastle, 
with all its rocky strata. A Scottish lake does not shoal 
at the rate of half a foot in a century ; and that country 
presents a vertical depth of far more than 3,000 feet, 
in the single series of the oldest sandstone. No sound 
geologist will accuse a computer of exceeding if he 
allow 600,000 years for the production of this series 



paring these with the number of heavenly bodies in our solar system, 
which may be worth noticing, Omitting the secondaries, such as the 
moons which certain of the larger planets possess, the whole number 
of the heavenly bodies in the solar system yet discovered, amount to 
sixty-six or sixty-seven. If we add the different non-fossiliferous rocks 
to the fifty-nine superincumbent strata, which together form the whole 
crust of the earth, we have about the same number ; from which we 
might infer a fresh exercise of creative power for every additional 
coating with which the earth is covered. Scripture seems to allude to 
these various formations in the expression of the Psalmist, " Thou 
renewest the face of the earth " (Ps. civ. 30) ; every geological strata 
being a fresh face of the earth renewed by Almighty Power. 
1 Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, p. 79. 



THE CHALK CLIFFS OF ENGLAND. 



245 



alone. Yet what are the coal deposits, and what are the 
oldest sandstone, compared to the entire mass of the 
strata?" 1 Speaking of the Cretaceous group, Hugh 
Miller says : " All our geologists agree in holding that 
the chalk was deposited in an ocean of very considerable 
depth, and of such extent, that it must have covered, for 
many ages, the greater part of what is now southern and 
central Europe. . . . What chiefly distinguishes the 
true chalk from any of its modern representatives is the 
amazing number of microscopic animals which it contains. 
On a low estimate half its entire bulk is composed of 
animalcuhtes of such amazing minuteness, that it has 
been calculated by Ehrenberg that each cubic inch of 
chalk may contain upwards of a million of the shells of 
these creatures. Here is then a new association with 
which to connect the chalk cliffs of England. Every 
fragment of these cliffs was once associated with animal 
life ; that impalpable white dust which gives a milky hue 
to the waves as they dash against them, consists of cu- 
riously organised skeletons ; even the white line which I 
draw along the board, were our eyes to be suddenly 
endowed with a high microscopic power, would resemble 
part of the wall of a grotto covered over with shells." 2 
Even this is exceeded, so far as the size of the animalculae 
is concerned, as Fullom, in his " Marvels of Science," 
after contending justly that these remains, so many 
fathoms deep, " must have been millions of years accu- 
mulating," points to the " Tripoli stone, which is formed 
of exquisite little shells, so minute and so numberless, 
that a cube of one-tenth of an inch, is said to contain 
500 millions of individuals." 

Such is the answer we may give to those who still 



1 System of Geology, vol. i. p. 506. 

2 Sketch Book of Popular Geology, pp. 114, 115.. 

R 3 



246 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



cling to the anti-geological hypothesis of the essence 
of the heavens and earth having been called into 
existence only 6000 years ago. If we invoke the aid 
of Science , and point to the impossibility of condensing 
the actual phenomena of the fossil strata into the 
space of sixty times 6000 years, we are met, as a writer 
in the Christian Observer (April, 1839, p. 212), has 
pointed out, in the following way. Having called the 
attention of an advocate of the anti-geological theory to 
a lofty inland rock composed of one vast mass of shells, 
and asked him whether he thought these enormous depo- 
sitions were to be attributed to the deluge, his reply was 
to this effect : " How do I know but that in those early 
clays the powers of nature were so prolific, or rather, that 
there was so constant a miracle, that this rock, which 
would require an enormous period to grow by ordinary 
accretion, might be generated in a day ; each plant and 
animal going through all its stages of life and death in the 
fraction of a moment, if necessary to produce the effect." 1 
The narrator very justly asks, "But why should it be 
necessary ? Or, what 6 effect ' did my friend mean, except 
the support of a popular interpretation ? I almost 
believe that, if my friend had been pressed with an 
argument from Euclid, he would have replied, 'But 
how do ive know that antediluvian circles or angles are 
like ours.' " 

If any farther proof were required to convince any 



1 Dr. Pye Smith in his admirable and comprehensive work entitled, 
" Geology and Scripture," calls attention to the work of a clergyman, 
who attempts to account for the possibility of nature effecting in 6000 
years, what science, and we may add the Bible, teaches must have 
taken millions, upon the known instances of accelerated speed, in mo- 
tion and mechanical operations, by the steam-engine. Without stopping 
to notice the want of analogy in this case, it is curious to observe the 
shifts to which the an ti -geologists are put by their mistaken attempts 
to divorce Revelation and Science. 



THE TRANSIT OF LIGHT. 



247 



reasonable investigator of the harmony which must exist 
on this, as on every other subject, between Revelation and 
Science, and that " in the beginning," when the essence 
of the heavens and the earth were created, means more 
than 6000 years ago, we have a sure one in the known 
velocity at which light travels. This discovery, which 
has conferred such a high fame upon Eoemer, a Danish 
astronomer of the 17th century, has supplied us with the 
means of grasping, in some measure, both the infinity 
and the antiquity of creation, as it has, by common con- 
sent, been adopted as the unit in all computations whose 
object is to gauge the universe. " The distance of the 
sun and the stars is ascertained by a yard measure," 
says Professor Airy 1 ; and proceeding from such a simple 
experiment, Science has been enabled to point with 
unerring accuracy, to the respective distances of not only 
the earth and all the planets from the sun, but also of 
our solar system from those fixed stars which are hung on 
every side around. And since the distance of these latter 
are so enormous, it has been found convenient to express 
it by the rate at which light passes from them to us, in 
preference to attempting to record it in numbers of miles. 
Thus, e.g. if light, which travels at the astounding speed 
of 192,000 miles each second of time, passes from the sun 
to the earth in eight minutes, we are enabled to show 
that it requires a period of more than three years for its 
transmission, at the same rate, from the nearest fixed star 
to our solar system. 2 



1 Lectures on Astronomy, p. 4. 

2 The celebrated Bessel of Kbnigsberg, was the first to discover a 
parallax for any of the fixed stars ; having found it for a small star, the 
second nearest to our system, known by the name of No. 61 in the 
constellation Cygnus. The parallax was found to be about t G q of a 
second, corresponding to a distance of 63,000,000,000,000 miles, and 

k 4 



248 



REVELATION AM) SCIENCE. 



Sir William Herscliel calculated that the time required 
for the transmission of the stellar light from the grand 
nebulae in Orion, which is invisible to the naked eye, 
amounts to 60,000 years. And Professor Struve has 
published a table of the time required by stars of dif- 
ferent magnitudes for the passage of their respective 
emissions of light to our sun, commencing with one of 
the first magnitude, whose distance from our system is 
986,000 times the radii of the earth's orbit, requiring 
119,700 years for the transit of light, and advancing to 
one of the ninth magnitude, which is 224,500,000 times 
the radii of the earth's orbit, and requires a _ period (so 
enormous that it cannot be thought of without exciting 
overwhelming feelings of awe) of 28,257,180 years 1 , be- 
fore the light which has left that distant heavenly body 
can have reached our comparatively tiny globe. 

Thus Science affords us unanswerable proof that the 
first sentence in the Book of Revelation declares the 
high antiquity of this globe we inhabit ; and the second 
sentence, which affirms that the earth subsequently be- 
came " waste and desolate," or " without form and void," 
according to our translation, denotes the chaotic gap 
previous to the Spirit of Elohim brooding upon the face 
of the waters, when God began to prepare it for the 
habitation of man. It is interesting to trace the order 
and amount of creation through the long series of the 
geological ages, from the period when the little annehde 
or sand-boring worm was the sole tenant of this wide 
earth, until the conclusion of what is termed the ter- 

requirmg a period of more than nine years for the transmission of its 
light to our earth. 

1 See a report upon the state of astral observation, made to Count 
Ouvaroff, Minister of Public Instruction and President of the Imperial 
Academy of Sciences, by Professor F. G. W. Struve, May 19th, 1847, 
Petersburg. 



THE TERTIARY PERIOD. 



249 



tiary system, as it will be found how regular is the 
arithmetical progression of animal life, which has been 
still preserved for the use of man. Thus in the Eocene, 
the lowest formation of the tertiary, only 3 per cent, of 
living species of animals have yet been discovered ; in 
the Meiocene, 25 per cent. ; in the Pleiocene, 70 per 
cent. ; and in the Pleistocene, that which comes nearest 
to our own, no less than 95 per cent, of existing species 
have been found. If we contrast the number of species in 
the older fossihferous strata, which, as Sir Eoderick Mur- 
chison tells us, " often contain vast quantities of organic re- 
mains," while " the number of species is much smaller than 
in more recent deposits," 1 with the present abundant fauna, 
which include 1000 species of mammalia, 6000 of birds, 
nearly the same number of fishes, and upwards of 500,000 
of other species, such as insects, conchyha, and zoophytes, 
we see how gradually the great Creator has adapted the 
earth under its present form for the use and habitation 
of man. We understand then the first two verses in 
Genesis to be a very brief record (its brevity compared 
with other cosmogonies is a testimony to its inspiration 
and its truth) of all creation, from the beginning of 
eternity through the countless roll of the geological 
ages, until, after the last bouleversement which our earth 
has witnessed, God deigned to adapt it to the special 
use of beings whom He created in the image and like- 
ness of Himself. 

Adopting the metaphor of Kazivini, an Arabian writer 
of the thirteenth century, let us imagine what an 
inhabitant of some distant world would have seen, 
had he visited this earth at intervals during the ex- 
istence of some of the different geological series, which 
are so succinctly and yet so truly described in the first 



1 Silurian System, p. 583. 



250 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



two verses of the Bible, " Countless ages before man 
was created," he might be supposed to say, " I visited 
these regions of the earth, and beheld an interminable 
ocean of granite, seething and glowing like molten ore, 
in every cleft and volcano ; and the raging flood beneath 
heaves and falls, and the waters which have fallen from the 
mists hiss over the awful scene, while the Great Creator 
is laying the foundations of the earth in the shape of the 
igneous rocks ; and signs of life there were none. And 
after many ages had rolled away I again visited the earth, 
and saw the first signs of organic life — the seas swarming 
with species of zoophytes, radiata, molluscs, annelides, 
and Crustacea, amongst which was seen the three-lobed 
trilobite, with its beautifully jointed shells (admirable 
contrivances for combining simultaneous protection with 
freedom of movement), a possible emblem of that Triune 
Creator who had called them all into being. And after 
the lapse of many ages, I found the earth teeming with 
the most luxurious vegetation, such as is now unequalled 
in the jungles of our tropical countries, — ferns, reeds, and 
club mosses nearly fifty feet in length and upwards of 
four in diameter. And when I again visited the same 
place I found it tenanted by monsters of the reptile tribe, 
the ichthyosaurus, the megalosaurus, and the iguanodon, 
combining the bulk of an elephant with the shape of an 
alligator (whose length has been variously estimated from 
forty to seventy feet), so gigantic that nothing of the 
present race can compare with them, basking on the 
banks of its rivers and roaming through its forests ; while 
through the tree-fern groves flitted a huge, flying lizard 
(pterodactyl), like a monster bat with wings stretching 
upwards of twenty-seven feet across, and its capacious jaws 
furnished with full sixty teeth, like those of a crocodile. 
And thousands of years rolled by, and when I returned 
I beheld animals of colossal magnitude, but of a totally 



MOSAIC COSMOGONY. 



251 



different shape from what I had before seen, herds of 
deer of enormous size, elephants twice as large as those 
in the present day, the megatherium, and the dinotherium, 
the tapir, and the mastodon, whose teeth were of 201bs. 
weight, and which in size attained a length of upwards 
of twenty-five feet. And another epoch passed away, 
and I came to the scene of my former contemplations 
and all was changed. Herds of deer were still to be 
seen, but they were of a different size, and were accom- 
panied with horses, and oxen, and swine, and sheep ; and 
in command of all I found one whom I recognised as 
4 being made in the image and likeness of God.' " 

In the Mosaic Cosmogony we have a statement re- 
specting the twofold manifestation of "light" to our 
world. In the first, which has been already noticed 1 , 
we have the simple record of the way in which God 
commanded light to affect the chaos which then existed. 
In the second, the appointment of that great luminary 
on the fourth " day" of creation to rule the clay, from 
whose beams we have light and heat, and by whose in- 
fluence we have the promise fulfilled, that "while the 
earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and 
heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall 
not cease." 2 In both we have undesigned testimony 
to facts which it was impossible for human skill to 
discover, and therefore the narrator must have been di- 
rectly inspired by God. Thus the twofold sources of 
light, as described in Revelation, are not only in perfect 
accordance with Science, but that which is independent 
of the sun's rays, and which under the name of stellar 
light, has been winging its ceaseless flight through mil- 
lions of years from those distant worlds above, has 



} See p. 199. 



2 Genesis, viii. 22. 



252 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



been now proved by its operation in one of the bygone 
geological ages, to have been of incalculable blessing 
in supplying the daily wants of civilised man. If such 
an one as we have already supposed, had been per- 
mitted to visit this earth during the period when it 
flourished under the gorgeous flora of the carboniferous 
era, when what is now called England was favoured 
with a climate, and covered with a vegetation, far greater 
and far more luxuriant than the tropical regions in the 
present day, could he have conceived that it was all pur- 
posely designed for the future use of man ? Yet what is 
it that warms our houses, cooks our dinner, lights the 
streets, puts in motion the vast machinery of our manu- 
facturing districts, and enables us to fly through space 
with the speed of the swiftest bird ? What is it that 
does all this ? Why, light bottled up in the earth for 
millions of years ; light absorbed by plants and vege- 
tables, which is necessary for the condensation of carbon 
during the process of their growth, if it be not carbon in 
another form, and which after being buried in the earth 
for long ages in fields of coal, is liberated, and made to 
work, as we see it, in supplying the various wants of 
mankind. This most striking idea, which originated 
with that eminent engineer, the late George Stephenson, 
illuminates at once an entire field of Science, and helps to 
confirm the truth of the Mosaic Cosmogony, which would 
naturally, had it been the work of uninspired man, have 
attributed the existence of light to its one sole visible 
source, viz. the luminary which God appointed to rule 
the day. 

Before entering upon the consideration of the second 
important matter in the Mosaic Cosmogony, viz. the exact 
meaning of the word " day," as used in the first chapter 
of Genesis, it is right to notice a criticism of Mr. Good- 
win's upon the two words which are used by the sacred 



MOSAIC COSMOGONY. 



253 



writer to express the distinction between creating and mak- 
ing. The Essayist observes, that " it has been a matter of 
discussion amongst theologians whether the word 4 created ' 
(Heb. bara) here means simply formed or shaped, or 
formed out of nothing" (p. 218). And he adds, in a foot 
note, " That it does not necessarily mean to make out of 
nothing appears from verse 21, where it is said that God 
created (bara) the great whales ; and from verses 26 and 
27, in the first of which we read, 6 God said, Let us make 
(hasah) man in our image,' and in the latter, 4 So God 
created (bara) man in his image.' In neither of these 
cases can it be supposed to be implied that the whales, or 
man, were made out of nothing," The better way of 
explaining the distinction between bara and hasah would 
be by understanding the former to refer to original crea- 
tion, " whether out of nothing, or out of pre-existing 
matter" is, as Mr. Goodwin says, "immaterial;" 1 the 
latter to express appointing, or applying to a certain pur- 
pose what had existed in a previous creation. Thus, e. g. 
in verse 1, God is said to have originally created (bara) 
the essence of the heavens and of the earth ; in verse 16, 
" God made (hasah) two great lights," i. e. He appointed 
what He had previously created for a definite purpose to 
rule the day and night when earth was about to become 
the habitation of man ; in verse 21, 44 God created (bara) 
great whales," i. e. created for the first time a fish, of which, 



1 In the first instance of the word being used in Scripture, it must 
of course refer to creation " out of nothing, 1 ' as Maimonides says, u It 
is a fundamental principle in our law, that God created this world from 
nothing."— Mo re JVevochim, par. ii. c. 30. And speaking of other 
opinions prevalent in the world he adds, " Those who believe in the 
law of our master Moses, hold that the whole world, which comprehends 
every being except the Creator, after being in a state of non-existence, 
received its existence from God — being called into existence from 
nothing." — Ibid. c. 13. 



254 



REVELATION AM) SCIENCE. 



we believe, no fossil has been discovered in any of the geo- 
logical strata, and of which there was no need until earth 
became inhabited, when both the bone and the flesh of this 
monster of the deep afforded such an abundant supply to 
meet the wants of civilised man ; in v. 25, "God made 
(hasah) the beast of the earth," i. e. re-stocked the earth 
with animals, which had, of different shape and size, ex- 
isted there long before ; in w. 26 and 27, we read, " God 
said, Let us make (hasah) man in our image," and " So 
God created {bar a) man in his own image." From this 
double announcement we draw the conclusion, that there 
may be a reference in the first instance to God's intention 
to make man, as He had before created a certain order of 
beings, viz. the angels ; and in the second, that He origi- 
nally created man, not out of nothing, but out of the dust 
of the earth, when He placed the first " living soul" — 
an immortal being, upon earth. Finally, we read in the 
summary of creation given in chapter ii., that 44 God 
rested from all His work which He had created (bara) 
and made (hasah). These are the generations of the 
heavens and of the earth when they were created (or in 
their creation, bara) in the day that the Lord God made 
(hasah) earth and heavens." By this we understand a 
double reference to a double act of creation on the part 
of the Almighty ; first, the original creation of the uni- 
verse, and then the 44 six days" preparation of the earth 
for the habitation of man 1 , when God made or arranged 
what He had long before created, for such a purpose. 
All this critical accuracy hi the account of the Jfosaic 



1 It is worthy of note that the Divine approbation, " God saw that 
it was good," is exj^ressed at the end of every day's work, save the 
second, which may be explained upon the ground that the earth was 
not prepared for the habitation of man until the third day, when the 
expression is twice repeated. 



MEANING OF THE WORD u DAY." 255 

Cosmogony is additional confirmation to its having been 
revealed to the sacred writer by the Creator of the 
Universe. 

We must now turn our attention to the consideration of 
the word " day," as used in the scriptural account of 
creation. We have already noticed some of the various 
opinions respecting it. Some interpret the word to mean 
exactly twenty-four hours ; others, a defined time of 1000 
years ; while a third class understand it as a period of 
indefinite length, for which there is authority in the pas- 
sage which has just been quoted, when the original 
generations of the heavens and of the earth " were created 
in the day that the Lord God," &c. Now, considering 
that our application of the word " day" to a period of 
twenty-four horns is dependent upon the revolution of the 
earth on its axis in connexion with its orbit round the 
sun, which was not apparent before the fourth day of 
creation, we are not necessarily obliged to limit the word 
in the Mosaic Cosmogony to the time which is assigned to 
it now. Moreover, as the word " day" is used assuredly 
in Scripture with other meanings, representing both inde- 
finite periods and periods limited to 1000 years \ it is not 
contradicting the sure testimony of Scripture to accept 
any of those definitions with a view to understanding the 
true meaning of any words we meet therein. And we 
therefore reject the imputation which Mr. Goodwin has 
brought against " conscientious" interpreters of Scripture, 
when he says, " They evidently do not breathe freely over 
their work, but shuffle and stumble over their difficulties in 
a 'piteous manner ; nor are they themselves again until 
they return to the pure and open fields of Science" 
(p. 250). 

Let us, however, undeterred by the remarks of our 



Compare Isaiah, xlix. 8, with 2 Peter, iii. 8. 



256 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Essayist, endeavour to show how, in this instance (as we 
are firmly persuaded in every other), Science and Revela- 
tion may be completely reconciled. It is stated, that after 
the work of the six days' creation was accomplished, " God 
rested on the seventh day from all His work which He 
had made." Is there any means by which we may ascer- 
tain the exact duration of this rest, and consequently the 
scriptural definition of the word " day," as it is used in 
the first chapter of Genesis ? We conclude there is. It 
has been universally believed by Jews and Christians 
for many ages, as gathered from a variety of passages in 
Scripture, that the period allotted to man, in his present 
condition on earth, consists of 6000 years ; and the Bible 
chronology, notwithstanding " Bunsen's Biblical Be- 
searches," shows that this limit has nearly expired. This, 
with the addition of the coming Minennhun, would make, 
in all, a period of 7000 years, at the expiration of which, 
we are taught in Scripture, that Christ's kingly connexion 
with earth wull cease, as it is said : " Then cometh the end 
(of this age), when He shall have delivered up the king- 
dom to God, even the Father, . . . that God may 
be all in all." 1 The Father will then resume His work, 
as we conclude, from which He has been resting so long 
a period. And thus we gather from Revelation that " the 
seventh day," or resting time, as we might term it, of 
the demiurgic Creator, means a period of 7000 years. 
Hence it may be logically proved, that each of the " six 
days," mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis, repre- 
sents a period of equal duration. And a simple multipli- 
cation sum shows that nigh 50,000 years will have rolled 
away, since the Almighty fiat went forth, "Let there 
be light," and God prepared the earth for man, when 
" time shall be no more," by " God being all in all." * 



1 1 Corinthians, xv. 24, 28. 



THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. 



257 



Now, how does Science agree with Revelation in this 
conclusion ? We believe that the sole test by which the 
duration of earth's present surface, or what the geologists 
call " The Post-Tertiary System," can be ascertained, or 
even surmised, is by estimating the age of the Falls of 
Niagara, which reason tells us must have been cutting 
through their rocky bed of Silurian strata without a mo- 
ment's intermission, as age after age has rolled by, since 
they assumed their present magnificent appearance. 
Other tests which have been proposed for a like object, 
such as attempting to calculate the time required to form 
the coral reefs of the Pacific, or the Delta of the Missis- 
sippi, or the Nile, or the Ganges, or any other river, 
necessarily fail through the impossibility of making any 
correct estimate of the annual rate of such sub-aqueous de- 
posits, and also from our not knowing whether the origin 
of such work may not belong to an earlier formation than 
our present Post-Tertiary System. Sir Charles Lyell, the 
greatest living authority on such a subject, states, in his 
" Principles of Geology," that after the most careful in- 
quiries which he was enabled to make on the spot, in 
1841, he came to the conclusion, that the average of 
one foot a year was the rate at which the waterfall has 
been cutting through its stony bed. He further adds, 
that " it would have required 35,000 years for the retreat 
of the Falls, from the escarpement at Queenstown (a dis- 
tance of seven miles), to their present site." 

We know, from the Mosaic Cosmogony, that the earth 
did not exist in its present appearance until the third of 
the six days' creation, as it is written, " God called the 
dry land Earth ; and the evening and the morning were 
the third day." 1 Supposing, then, we are right in our 
estimation respecting each " day " representing a period 



1 Genesis i. 10, 13. 



258 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



of 7000 years, a simple multiplication sum, 7000 x 5 
(the number of " days " in the Mosaic record to be ac- 
counted for since the preparation of the earth for man), 
would give the same result of 35,000, as the number of 
years required by geology from the formation of the Falls 
of Niagara unto this present time. And thus Science and 
Revelation, without any attempt at a " spurious reconcile- 
ment," as Professor Jowett terms it, are shown on this 
point to be in perfect harmony together, and sufficiently 
refute the dictum of the same writer, who speaks of " the 
explanations of the first chapter of Genesis having 
slowly changed, and, as it were, retreated before the ad- 
vance of geology." 1 

The common objection to this view respecting the 
meaning of the word "day" in the first chapter of 
Genesis, rests upon the command to keep holy the 
Sabbath day : — " For in six days the Lord made heaven 
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested 
the seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath 
day, and hallowed it." 2 Whence it is naturally argued 
that our warrant for observing a weekly Sabbath of 
twenty-four horns' duration, depends upon God's rest 
from his work for a similar limited period. " But," as 
Hugh Miller has justly observed on this subject, "I 
know not where we shall find grounds for the belief 
that that Sabbath day during which God rested, was 
merely commensurate in its duration with one of the 
Sabbaths of short-lived man, — a brief period, measured 
by a single revolution of the earth on its axis. We have 
not a shadow of evidence that he resumed his work of 
creation on the morrow. The geologist finds no trace of 
post-Adamic creation ; the theologian can tell us of none. 
God's Sabbath of rest may still exist ; the work of re- 



1 Essays and Reviews, p. 341. 



2 Exodus, xx. 2. 



god's sabbath day. 



259 



demption may be the work of His Sabbath day. . . . The 
collation of the passage (given above) with the geologic 
record seems, as if by a species of re-translation, to make 
it enunciate as its injunction, Keep this day, not merely 
as a day of memorial related to a past fact, but also as 
a day of co-operation with God in the work of elevation, 
in relation both to a present fact and a future purpose. 
God keeps His Sabbath, it says, in order that He may 
save. Keep yours also, in order that ye may be saved. 
It serves, besides, to throw light on the prominence of 
the Sabbatical command, hi a digest of law, of which no 
part or tittle can pass away until the fulfilment of all 
things. During the present dynasty of probation and 
trial, that special work of both God and man on which 
the character of the future dynasty depends, is the 
Sabbath-day work of saving and being saved. . . . Man, 
when in his unfallen state, bore the image of God, but 
it must have been a miniature image at best ; the pro- 
portion of man's week to that of his Maker may, for 
aught that appears, be mathematically just in its pro- 
portions, and yet be a miniature image too, — the mere 
scale of a map, on which inches represent geographical 
degrees. All. these week-days and Sabbath-days of man 
which have come and gone since man first entered upon 
this scene of being, with all which shall yet come and 
go, until the resurrection of the dead terminates the 
work of redemption, may be included, and probably are 
included, in the one Sabbath-day of God." 1 We should 
have preferred to define the duration of God's rest-day, 
compared with man's, as "perfectly just in its propor- 
tions," in place of the expression " mathematically," which 
the distinguished geologist, from whose work we have 
quoted, uses, though it was natural for Miller, who 



1 Footprints of the Creator, pp. 307—310, 



260 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



adopted the theory of " the six days " creation represent- 
ing periods of undefined length, to select such a time ; 
but knowing that all God's ways and works are perfect, 
and that any multiple of seven is the emblem of per- 
fection, we think the evidence we have adduced, and 
the harmony which has been shown to exist between 
the scriptural and the Mosaic record on the duration of 
the word "day," 1 is sufficient to prove that it means 
none other than the period of 7000 years, during which 
God is said to rest, while the grand work of man's re- 
demption is commenced, carried on, and perfected, when 
the Redeemer, having seen of the travail of His soul, and 
being satisfied, shall deliver up the kingdom, hi the ex- 
uberance of His joy, to the Father, that " God may be 
all in all." 

Let it not, however, be supposed that the expression 
" God rested " denotes anything like either weariness or 
inactivity. " The Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth 
not, neither is weary," 2 but rather as it is elsewhere said, 
" He rested and was refreshed." 3 God's rest is not a 
cessation from all work, is not a rest of inactivity, but 
rather a rest in activity, as our Lord declared, " My 
Father worketh hitherto, and I work," 4 by which we 



1 The expression " the evening and the morning were the — day," 
lit. " and there was evening and there was morning," used to denote 
the completion of each of the " six days' " creation, is omitted in re- 
spect to the seventh ; from which we may infer, with reason, that it was 
not completed when Moses lived, and is current now. Further, the 
fact that the cardinal " one," and not the ordinal "first" as in our 
translation, is used by Moses, " and there was evening, and there was 
morning, one day," denotes the peculiarity of that day — that it was a 
day sui generis, as commentators have justly described it — dies unicus, 
prorsus singularis " (Maurer). " Ein einziges Tag" (De Witte), an 
only day ; or, " Einzig in seiner Art" (Hitzig), the only one of its kind. 

2 Isaiah, xl. 28. 3 Exodus, xxxi. 17. 4 St. John, v. 17. 



god's besting time. 



261 



understand the perpetuity of preservative governance un- 
ceasingly exerted by Jehovah for the benefit of His 
creatures. The Apostle alludes in 2 Cor. v. 17 to that 
66 new creation," which is an assurance to us that in the 
spiritual world the creative power of God is ever in ex- 
ercise, as a recent writer on this subject has justly ob- 
served, " There is a restoring process, a building up from 
the ruins of the fall — a Divine purpose and a Divine 
work in raising man to a higher level than that on which 
the material creation placed him. In this the Father 
workeih ; and this is the work which He hath committed 
to the Son — the work of the one is a reflex of that of the 
other — a work in which the profoundest rest is rot ex- 
cluded by the highest activity," 1 

The grand error which pervades Mr. Goodwin's Essay 
on " the Mosaic Cosmogony " 'is that which is unhappily 
common to most of his clerical companions, viz. the 
inability to believe that Moses, like all the other sacred 
writers, wrote by the direct inspiration of God, and con- 
sequently, in Science and in history, as in doctrine, could 
have written nothing but the truth. 2 " Why should we 



1 Macdonald's Creation and the Fall, p. 106. 

2 No stronger evidence of Moses having written by the direct inspi- 
ration of God is to be seen, than in the contrast which the marvellous 
simplicity of the Biblical cosmogony presents to the silly tales of other 
cosmogonies, which are in reality the rationalistic ideas of an age later 
than Moses, conceived by those who did not possess a revelation from 
God. Will the following compressed statement of Hindoo philosophy, 
which Sonnerat exhibits, satisfy the rationalists of the present day as 
being nearer the truth than the Mosaic cosmogony ? " On the death 
of Brahma., all the worlds will suffer a deluge : all the Audons will be 
broken : and Cailasa and Vaicontha (the Paradise of Vishnu floating 
on a sea of milk) will only remain. At that time, Vishnu, taking a 
leaf of the tree called Allemaron, will place himself on the leaf under 
the figure of a very little child, and thus float on the sea of milk suck- 
ing the toe of his right foot. He will remain in this posture, until 

s 3 



262 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



hesitate," he asks, " to recognise the fallibility of the 
Hebrew writers on this head (physical science) ? . . . It 
has been popularly assumed that the Bible, bearing the 
stamp of Divine authority, must be complete, perfect and 
unimpeachable in all its parts, and a thousand difficulties 
and incoherent doctrines have sprung out of this theory. 

... The treatment to which the Mosaic narrative is 
subjected by the theological geologists is anything but 
respectful. The writers of this school as we have seen, 
agree in representing it as a series of elaborate equivoca- 
tions, a story 4 which palters with us in a double sense.' 
But if we regard it as the speculation of some Hebrew 
Descartes or Newton, promulgated in all good faith as 
the best and most probable account that could then be 
given of God's universe, it resumes the dignity and value 
of which the writers in question have done their utmost to 
deprive it .... No one contends that it (Scripture) 
can be used as a basis of astronomical or geological 
teaching, and those who profess to see it in accordance 
with facts, only do this sub modo, and by processes which 
despoil it of its consistency and grandeur, both which 
may be preserved if we recognise in it, not an authentic 
utterance of Divine knowledge, but a human utterance, 
which it has pleased Providence to use in a special way 
for the education of mankind " (pp. 251 — 253). " The 
plain meaning of the Hebrew record is unscrupulously 
tampered with, and in general the pith of the whole pro- 
cess lies in divesting the text of all meaning whatever. 
We are told that Scripture, not being designed to teach 
us natural philosophy, it is in vain to attempt to make 
out a cosmogony from its statements. If the first chapter 



Brahma anew comes forth from his navel in a tamarind flower. It is 
thus, that the ages and worlds succeed each other, and are perpetually 
renewed." — Sonnerat, vol. i. p. 226, apud Moor's Hind. Panth. p. 103. 



mr. Goodwin's scepticism. 



263 



of Genesis convey to us no information concerning the 
origin of the world, its statements cannot indeed be con- 
tradicted by modern discovery. But it is absurd to call 
this harmony. Statements such as that above quoted 
are, we conceive, little calculated to be serviceable to 
the interest of theology, still less to religion and morality. 
Believing as we do, that if the value of the Bible as a 
book of religious instruction is to be maintained, it must 
be not by striving to prove it scientifically exact, at the 
expense of every sound principle of interpretation, and in 
defiance of common sense, but by the frank recognition of 
the erroneous views of nature which it contains" (p. 211). 
We agree so far with the Essayist that the object of 
Scripture is not so much to teach astronomy, or geology, 
or any physical science, as it is religious and moral 
truth ; but we are at issue with him and his fellow- 
sceptics on the grand matter, which separates the theolo- 
gical and the rational geologists by an impassable gulf, 
viz. the possibility of God's word containing any " er- 
roneous views " whatever. When we find him speaking 
of " the fallibility about the Hebrew writers," and the 
Bible being " the speculation of some Hebrew Descartes 
or Newton," in short " a human utterance," in place of 
being " an authentic utterance of Divine knowledge," and 
condemning " the popular " opinion which considers it 
" complete and perfect and unassailable in all its parts," 
— when we see him accusing the theological geologists of 
having " done their uttermost to deprive the Bible of its 
dignity and value," and for " professing to see it in ac- 
cordance with facts " — when we find him stamping their 
modest and devout attempts to show the perfect " har- 
mony " between Revelation and Science with the usual 
proud dictum of his school as " absurd," — we can only 
commiserate the infatuation, and expose the ignorance 
which in defence of a bad cause he has so unrighteously 

s 4 



264 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



displayed. " The fool hath said in his heart, There is no 
God ; " and it is only a question of degree, not of principle, 
on the part of those who, whilst they acknowledge the 
irresistible evidence in proof that " He is," forget that " He 
is a rewarder of them (only) who diligently seek after 
Him." 1 Those only can be said to seek after Him diligently 
who gladly and in faith recognise the all perfect har- 
mony between His word and His works, instead of expos- 
ing their deplorable scepticism in the way our Essayist 
has done. Happy are the persons who, feeling their high 
privilege to contemplate the works of God, are well 
assured at the outset that they can never contradict His 
word. The book of nature and the book of revelation 
equally lie open to our inspection. God has endowed us 
with faculties by which we can interpret the one, and 
has given us His Spirit to enable us to comprehend the 
other. By making Science a handmaid to religion, and 
not the reverse, as unhappily the rationalistic school of 
the present day seem disposed to do, geology becomes 
in reality a new evidence to Revelation. The true con- 
clusions which are drawn from it have broken the arms 
of the infidel ; and when we meditate upon the great 
events which they proclaim, the mighty revolutions which 
they indicate, the wrecks of successive creations which 
they display, and the immeasurable cycles of their chro- 
nology, the period of man's tenancy of earth shrinks 
into nothing ; his most ancient kingdoms are but of yes- 
terday ; the gorgeous temples of Egypt, and the palaces 
of Assyria sink into insignificance beside the mighty sar- 
cophagi of the fossil-dead. 

Let us remember, then, to our comfort that Revelation 
and Science are, as Dr. Pye Smith expressed it, "both 
beams of light from the same sun of eternal truth," and 



i Heb. xi. 6. 



DR. M'COSH ON THE DIVIDE GOVERNMENT. 265 

we may feel satisfied with the thought of Chalmers that 
" Christianity has everything to hope and nothing to fear " 
from the advancement of the latter. For sure we are that 
the Scriptures present no bar to the most comprehensive 
and searching investigation on the part of those who 
gladly seek to know the harmony which exists between 
His word and his works. " Science has a foundation," 
observes Dr. M'Cosh, in his Method of the Divine Go- 
vernment, " and so has Eeligion. Let them unite their 
foundations, and the basis will be broader, and they will 
be two compartments of one great fabric reared to the 
glory of God. Let the one be the outer and the other 
the inner court. In the one let all look and admire and 
adore ; and in the other let those who have faith kneel 
and pray and praise. Let the one be the sanctuary where 
human learning may present its richest incense as an offer- 
ing to God, and the other, the holiest of all, separated 
from it by a vail now rent hi twain, and in which, on a 
blood-sprinkled mercy-seat, we pour out the love of a 
reconciled heart, and hear the oracles of the living 
God."- 



STATEMENTS OF THE liEMAINING 
ESSAYISTS. 



CHAP. V. 

Having thus endeavoured to show the harmony which 
exists between Revelation and Science, in respect to the 
three prominent subjects mooted in the foregoing Chap- 
ters, — viz. the Chronology of Scripture as regards the 
age of man upon earth in contradistinction to the theory 
of Bunsen ; the origin of species, in opposition to the 
views of Darwin and his predecessors ; and the Mosaic 
cosmogony, as literally set forth in the first chapter of 
Genesis, — we proceed to an examination of certain state- 
ments put forth by the remaining authors of " Essays and 
Ee views." 

§ 1. One of the most important subjects treated of by 
the Essayists is unquestionably the regard which we, 
who profess to be believers in Christianity, are bound 
to entertain towards Holy Scripture, as containing the 
revealed will of God to His fallen creatures : and it is 
a significant proof of the lofty position which England 
now holds amongst the nations of the earth, to trace it 
to the almost universal feeling which exists amongst us 
of the necessity, as well as the propriety, of making the 
Bible the basis of our national education. 

It was a wonderful step in the right direction for man, 
unaided by a revelation from on high, to attain, when the 
Grecian sage, in the plenitude of his intellectual powers, 
gave utterance to that memorable sentence, which was 



INTELLECTUAL POWER. 



267 



subsequently recorded on the Temple at Delphos, yv&Qi 
(Tsavrov 1 ; but it fell infinitely short of that higher know- 
ledge which we are bound to seek respecting, not ourselves 
only, but Him who hath made us all. Hence, while we 
must admit, in a sense, the truth of Dr. Temple's dictum, 
that " the great lever which moves the world is know- 
ledge, the great force is the intellect," 2 we cannot help 
thinking that it is a mournful sign of the times for a 
Christian teacher to exalt the omnipotence of human 
learning in such a prominent way. Gibbon's celebrated 
remark, that " man has two sorts of education — one from 
his teachers, the other, and more important, which he 
gets from himself," may be applied here. For the soul 
of man in a healthy condition, which in other words is 
the intellect sanctified by the Spirit and consecrated to 
the service of God, is not only delighted with knowledge, 
but also with the very act of learning. To see and con- 
fess the smallness of our range is the necessary and proper 
result of our acquirement of true knowledge. "What 
we know is little, what we know not is immense," was 
the confession of a great mind. 3 " I am but as a child," 
said one still greater 4 , " standing on the seashore of the 
vast undiscovered ocean, and playing with a little pebble 
which the waters have washed to my feet." 

That such an admission, viewing it in its proper light, 
can only proceed from an intimate acquaintance with that 
one great Book, in which God has revealed His will to 
man, is what Dr. Temple cheerfully admits. " Men are 
beginning to take a wider view than they did. Physical 
science, researches into history, a more thorough know- 
ledge of the world they inhabit, have enlarged our 
philosophy beyond the limits which bounded that of the 



1 Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates, lib. iv. § 10. 

2 Essays and Eeviews : The Education of the World, p. 48. 

3 La Place. 4 Sir Isaac Newton. 



268 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Church of the Fathers. God's creation is a new book to 
be read by the side of His revelation, and to be inter- 
preted as coining from Him. In learning this new lesson, 
Christendom needed a firm spot on which she might stand, 
and has found it in the Bible " (p. 44). The complete 
accordance between Revelation and Science is a subject 
of such vast importance, that too much cannot be said 
about it. Hence we can gladly assent to Dr. Temple's 
inference, that the 7rov o-rco of Christendom can be found 
only " in the Bible." But when he appears to identify 
the Bible, the Word of God, with conscience, the voice 
of man, we are constrained, in all fidelity, to reject his 
views. " We use the Bible," he argues, " not to override, 
but to evoke the voice of conscience. When conscience 
and the Bible appear to differ, the pious Christian imme- 
diately concludes that he has not really understood the 
Bible. Hence, too, while the interpretation of the Bible 
varies slightly from age to age, it varies always in one 
direction — the current is all one way : it evidently points 
to the identification of the Bible with the voice of con- 
science" (pp. 44, 45). Part of this quotation agrees 
with what was so ably put forth by Bishop Butler about 
a century ago. " If," said that profound divine, " in 
Eevelation there be found any passages, the seeming 
meaning of which is contrary to natural religion, we may 
most certainly conclude such seeming meaning not to be 
the real one. But it is not any degree of a presumption 
against an interpretation of Scripture, that such interpre- 
tation contains a doctrine which the light of nature cannot 
discover, or a precept which the law of nature does not 
oblige to." 1 The remainder, however — viz. the identifi- 
cation of the Bible with the voice of conscience — is Dr. 
Temple's own definition, to which we may fairly take 



1 The Analogy of Religion, pt. n. c. h 



THE POWER OF CONSCIENCE. 



269 



exception. Conscience, when it is a waking and speaking 
one, is an inestimable blessing — (Arminius called it "a 
paradise ") — that is, a conscience not only quick to discern 
what is evil, but to shun it, as the eyelid closes itself 
against a grain of dust. Conscience, when it has fair 
play, is indeed a most valuable monitor ; but, like a legiti- 
mate monarch, when overborne by passion or unhinged by 
prejudice, it may be too often dethroned. If we could, 
to adopt the language of the Psalmist 1 , "take to our- 
selves the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost 
parts of the sea," conscience, like the Omnipresent One, 
would be ever with us, for our happiness or our misery. 
If, to continue the metaphor, we say, " The darkness 
shall cover us, and the night shall be light about us," in 
regard to Him to whom " darkness and light are both 
alike," conscience would never leave us. We cannot 
escape its power, or fly its presence. It is ever with us 
in this life, will be with us at its close ; and in that solemn 
scene which yet lies further onward, when the thoughts 
of all hearts shall be revealed, we shall still find it face to 
face, to reprove us wherever it has been violated, and to 
console us so far as grace may have enabled us to profit 
by it. But this is not the Bible ; and he who attempts 
to identify the one with the other labours under a most 
fatal mistake. The utility of the Bible consists in the 
practical application of its holy doctrines and its moral 
precepts to our own individual conscience, as our Lord 
taught when on earth — " Search the Scriptures ; for in 
them ye think ye have eternal life ; and they are they 
which testify of me." 2 There is such a variety and such 
a fulness in them, that our limited reasoning powers are 
utterly inadequate to fathom their exceeding great depths. 
As one of old justly contended, " The Word of God, by 



Psalin, cxxxix. 9 — 12. 



2 St. John, v. 39. 



270 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



the mysteries which it contains, exercises the under- 
standing of the wise ; so usually, by what presents itself 
on the outside, it nurses the simple-minded. It presents 
in open day that wherewith the little ones may be fed ; 
it keeps in secret that whereby men of a loftier range 
may be held in suspense of admiration. It is, as it were, 
a kind of river, if I may so liken it, which is both shallow 
and deep, wherein both the lamb may find a footing, 
and the elephant float at large." 1 

Thus the utility of the Bible, as containing the entire 
Eevelation of the Divine mind, is seen alike in its won- 
derful simplicity, as well as in its matchless perfection, 
unapproached and unapproachable by all the science and 
wisdom of the world. Its high sublimities, its holy 
morality, its comprehensive depths, its majestic poetry, its 
glorious principles, its divine precepts, its holy doctrines, 
and its blessed examples, have never been equalled by 
man, however tender his conscience, apart from the power 
and teaching of the Spirit of God. In itself, as having, 
according to the illustrious Locke, " God for its author, 
salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of 
error, for its matter," the Bible contains everything 
necessary by man to be known, and by man to be per- 
formed. Every sentence is unquestionably an emanation 
of Deity, and every human being is interested in the 
meaning thereof. And therefore, with peculiar propriety, 
did the translators of. our noble authorised version, which 
has better stood the test of unlimited criticism during the 
last three centuries than any other book in the world, 
affirm that, in giving forth this noble translation of the 
Divine will for the use of the nation at large, in order 
that " every man in our own tongue, wherein we were 



1 Epistle of Gregory the Great " to my fellow-bishop Leander," § iv. 
Prefixed to his Exposition of the Book of Job. 



DK. NEWMAN ON THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 271 

bom," 1 might read the wonderful works of God, it was 
" opening the window, to let in the light— breaking the 
shell, that we may eat the kernel — putting aside the cur- 
tain, that we may look into the most Holy Place — removing 
the cover from the well, that we may come by the water " 
of life, and taste and drink, and be satisfied for ever. If 
any further testimony were needed to express the over- 
whelming importance and value of that blessed gift to 
the English people, we have it in the candid admission of 
the most distinguished of the band of seceders who have 
quitted that eminent branch of Christ's Holy Catholic 
Church, which has been planted in this country ever 
since the first century, for the fallen and doomed Church 
of Eome. " Who will not say," asks Dr. Newman, " that 
the uncommon beauty and marvellous English of the 
Protestant Bible is not one of the great strongholds of 
heresy in this country ? It lives in the ear like music 
that can never be forgotten, like the sound of church 
bells which the convert hardly knows how he can forego. 
Its felicities seem to be almost things rather than mere 
words. It is part of the national mind, and the anchor 
of national seriousness. The memory of the dead passes 
into it. The potent traditions of childhood are stereotyped 
in its verses. The power of all the griefs and trials of a 
man is hidden beneath its words. It is the representative 
of his best moments ; and all that there has been about 
lihn of soft, and gentle, and pure, and penitent, and good, 
speaks to him for ever out of his English Bible. It is his 
sacred thing, which doubt has never dimmed, and con- 
troversy never soiled. In the length and breadth of the 
land, there is not a Protestant with one spark of religious- 
ness about him, whose spiritual biography is not in his 
Saxon Bible." 



1 Acts, ii. 8. 



272 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Another of the Essayists appears to have a somewhat 
facile conscience respecting the honour clue to Holy 
Scripture, as containing the revealed will and word of 
God, when we recollect his status and his obligations as a 
clergyman of the Church of England. " It has been mat- 
ter of great boast within the Church of England," observes 
Mr. Wilson, in his Essay on " The National Church," " in 
common with other Protestant Churches, that it is founded 
upon the 'Word of God,' a phrase which begs many 
a question when applied collectively to the books of the 
Old and New Testaments, a phrase which is never so 
applied to them by any of the scriptural authors. . . 
This declaration (viz. Art. VI. of the Church of England) 
may be expressed thus : the Word of God is contained 
in Scripture, whence it does not follow that it is co-exten- 
sive with it. The Church to which we belong does not 
put that stumbling block before the feet of her members ; 
it is their own fault if they place it there for themselves, 
authors of their own offence. Under the terms of the 
sixth Article, one may accept literally, or alley or ically, or 
as parable, or poetry, or legend, the story of a serpent 
tempter, of an ass speaking with man's voice, of an 
arresting of the earth's motion, of a reversal of its 
motion, of water standing in a sohd heap, of witches, 
and a variety of apparitions. . . Many evils have 
flowed to the people of England, otherwise free enough, 
from an extreme and too exclusive scrip turahsm. The 
rudimentary education of a large number of our country- 
men has been mainly carried on by the reading of the 
Scriptures. . . There is no book, indeed, or collection 
of books, so rich in words which address themselves 
intelligibly to the unlearned and learned alike. But 
those who are able to do so ought to lead the less edu- 
cated to distinguish between the different kinds of words 
which it contains, between the dark patches of human 



THE WOED OF GOD. 



273 



passion and error which form a partial crust upon it, and 
the bright centre of spiritual truth within." 1 We reserve 
the question of inspiration, which is slightly referred to 
in the above passage, for further consideration ; but we 
cannot omit to notice the skilful way in which the Essayist 
attempts to evade its force by his allusion to the " Word 
of God." This phrase, he says, is never applied to the 
books of the Old and New Testament by any of the 
scriptural authors, though he admits, in apparent forget- 
fulness of his previous statement, that " the Word of God 
is contained in Scripture." We confess we are hardly 
able to understand this distinction. " The Word of God " 
is a familiar phrase to denote the revealed will of God 
conveyed to us in writing, through the instrumentality of 
fallible men, who wrote as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost. We find our Lord using the phrase in this 
sense, when he speaks of the Pharisees 44 making the 
Word of God of none effect through your tradition" (St. 
Mark, vii. 13) ; or, when He defined His faithful disciples 
as 44 My brethren are those which hear the Word of God 
and do it" (St. Luke, viii. 21). St. Luke records in one 
place, that 44 the people pressed upon Christ to hear the 
Word of God " (viii. 1) ; and in another, that 44 almost the 
whole city came together to hear the Word of God " (Acts, 
xiii. 44). And St. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, 
speaks of certain persons who 44 corrupt the Word of God " 
(2 Cor. ii. 17) ; or, 44 who handle the Word of God deceit- 
fully" (2 Cor. iv. 2) — in all which instances the phrase 
is evidently used in the sense to which the Essayist objects. 
Further, his assertion, or rather implication, that the Word 
of God is not 44 co-extensive with Scripture," seems to be 
put forth as a loop-hole for getting rid of the honest 
meaning of that Article on Holy Scripture, to which the 



1 Essays and Reviews, pp. 175, 177. 



274 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Essayist, as a clergyman of the Church of England, is 
bound by the most solemn vows. It is impossible to 
reconcile upon the plain principles of honesty the language 
of the Sixth Article, that " in the name of the Holy 
Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the 
Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never 
any doubt in the Church," with the subtle suggestion, 
that " under its terms one may accept literally, or allego- 
rically, or as parable, or poetry, or legend, the story of a 
serpent tempter," which, in other words, is God's history 
of man's fall. If we are at liberty to read this, or any 
of the other suggested subjects which he mentions, either 
literally or as a legend, to be received or denied at the 
reader's pleasure, the same right must be conceded as 
regards the crucifixion, or any other doctrine or event 
recorded in Scripture, which may be unpalatable to our 
preconceived notions of right and wrong. Hence the 
alternative : either we must accept " all Scripture" to be 
verily the revealed word of God, containing the truth and 
nothing but the truth in the plain meaning of the term, 
and devoid of all " dark patches of human passion and 
error," save where the effects of sin are exposed and con- 
demned ; or we must tacitly acquiesce in such heresies as 
those of Cerinthus, Montanus, and Arius in ancient times, 
as well as those of Socinus, Johanna Southcote, and the 
Mormonites in more modern days. 

With regard to the harmony which exists between Re- 
velation and Science, no one can withhold his assent to a 
proposition of Professor Jowett, in his Essay on " The In- 
terpretation of Scripture," viz. " That any true doctrine of 
inspiration (of Scripture) must conform to all well-ascer- 
tained facts of history or science. The same fact cannot 
be true and untrue, any more than the same words can 
have two opposite meanings. The same fact cannot be 
true in Eeligion when seen by the light of faith, and 



PROFESSOR JOWETT ON SCRIPTURE. 



275 



untrue in Science when looked at through the medium of 
evidence or experiment. . . . There is no need of 
elaborate reconcilements of Revelation and Science ; they 
reconcile themselves the moment any scientific truth is 
distinctly ascertained." 1 Yet, when he comes to apply 
his canon of interpretation, we are at issue with him on 
most things which he has put forth on this subject. He 
writes : " Almost all intelligent persons are agreed that 
the earth has existed for myriads of ages ; " but he omits 
to notice, as he should have done, that in this there is 
a perfect harmony, not a " spurious reconciliation," be- 
tween the language of Revelation and the discoveries of 
Science, as we have shown at length when reviewing the 
Essay on " The Mosaic Cosmogony." And he continues : 
" The best informed are of opinion that the history of 
nations extends back some thousand years before the 
Mosaic chronology. 2 Recent discoveries in geology may 
parhaps open a further vista of existence for the human 
species, while it is possible, and may one day be known, 
that mankind spread not from one but from many centres 
over the globe ; or, as others say, that the supply of links 
which are at present wanting in the chain of animal life 
may lead to new conclusions respecting the origin of 
man " (p. 349). This appears to be a timid avowal of 
a mixture between Rationalism and Darwinism, which it 
would be creditable to the writer if it were more boldly 
declared. It is scarcely necessary for us to acid, that, as 



1 Essays and Reviews, p. 348. 

2 This is a favourite subject of scepticism with Professor Jowett. 
Further on he observes that " the time will come when educated men 
will no more think that the first chapters of Genesis relate the same tale 
which geology and ethnology unfold, than they now think the meaning 
of Joshua, x. 12, 13, to be in accordance with Galileo's discovery " 
(p. 419). 



276 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE, 



it is contrary to the express teaching of Revelation, it 
must be unscientific, and is untrue. 

"The question of inspiration" is another subject on 
which we find ourselves at issue with the learned pro- 
fessor. He opens his battery with unshrinking boldness 
by asserting that, "For any of the higher or supernatural 
views of inspiration, there is no foundation in the Gospels 
or Epistles. There is no appearance in their writings 
that the Evangelists or Apostles had any inward gift, or 
were subject to any power external to them different 
from that of preaching or teaching, which they daily exer- 
cised ; nor do they anywhere lead us to suppose that they 
were free from error or infirmity. St. Paul writes like a 
Christian teacher, . . . more than once correcting 
himself, corrected, too, by the course of events in his expec- 
tation of the coming of Christ" (pp. 345, 346) 

" The interpretation of Scripture has nothing to do 
with any opinion respecting its origin. The meaning of 
Scripture is one thing; the inspiration of Scripture is 
another. It is conceivable that those who hold the most 
different views about the one may be able to agree about 
the other. Eigicl upholders of the verbal inspiration of 
Scripture, and those who deny inspiration altogether, 
may, nevertheless, meet on the common ground of the 
meaning of words. If the term inspiration were to fall 
into disuse, no fact of nature, or history, or language, no 
event in the life of man, or dealings of Gocl with him, 
would be in any degree altered. The word itself is but 
of yesterday, not found in the earlier confessions of the 
reformed faith ; the difficulties that have arisen about it are 
only two or three centuries old. Therefore, the question 
of inspiration, though in one sense important, is to the in- 
terpreter as though it were not important. He is in no way 
called upon to determine a matter with which he has 
nothing to do, and which was not determined by fathers of 



ON THE INSINUATION OF SCRIPTURE. 



277 



the Church. And he had better go on his way and leave 
the more precise definition of the word to the progress of 
knowledge and the results of the study of Scripture, 
instead of entangling himself with a theory about it " 
(p. 351). ..." The word (SsoTrvsuo-rag), ' given by 
inspiration of God,' is spoken of the Old Testament, and 
is assumed to apply to the New, including that Epistle in 
which the expression occurs, 2 Tim. hi. 16 " (p. 360). 
We trust this is a fair statement of Professor Jowett's 
views on the important subject of the inspiration of the 
Scriptures, including both the Old and the New Testa- 
ment. We have desired to gather his opinion, and to state 
it in his own words fully, before proceeding to point out 
the tremendous gulf which separates him and his brother 
Essayists from those who believe Scripture to be, not the 
work of fallible man, but the revealed will of the living 
God. The Essayist has given two or three instances of 
differences amongst the Evangelists, which he considers 
a sufficient proof that such writers could not have been 
inspired by God. He observes, that " One supposes the 
original dwelling-place of our Lord's parents to have been 
Bethlehem (Matthew ii. 1, 22) ; another Nazareth (Luke 
ii. 4). They trace his genealogy in different ways. One 
mentions the thieves blaspheming ; another has preserved 
to after-ages the record of the penitent thief. They 
appear to differ about the day and hour of the cruci- 
fixion "(p. 346). It is needless to answer these objec- 
tions to the inspiration of the sacred writers, as any one 
moderately acquainted with the Gospels would naturally 
anticipate the reply ; but we have given them merely to 
show the reasoning of the semi-sceptical school against 
one of the most cherished truths of our holy religion. 

With regard to the question of inspiration itself, we 
can readily admit, with the Essayist, that the word, as 

T 3 



278 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



used conventionally 1 in the present day, is of modern origin, 
or rather we might term it modern in its application. 
We find it used in another sense by the compilers of our 
Book of Common Prayer, as the expression in that very 
beautiful Collect, which precedes the Communion Service, 
" Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of 
the Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee," is 
evidently a prayer for the ordinary gifts of the Spirit, as 
distinct from those which are termed extraordinary, 
with which the sacred writers were necessarily endowed 
when they spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost. Neither would we contend for the necessity of 
"verbal inspiration," if by that expression Professor 
Jowett means what the judicious Hooker, in one of his 
admirable works, describes as " syllabic inspiration," 2 



1 When Mr. Pitt, in the peroration of his great speech on the 
Abolition of the Slave Trade, depicting the prosperity of Africa in 
the evening of her day, with that rare felicity of quotation for which 
he was so eminently distinguished, introduced the famous lines from 
the Georgics of Virgil : 

" Nosq ; ubi primus equis oriens afflavit anhelis, 
Illic sera rubens accenclit lumina Vesper," — 

a thought suggested by the first ray of the rising sun, which darted 
through the window of the House of Commons, — it is related, that 
Mr. Windham, then in opposition, was so moved as to clap his hands, 
exclaiming in rapture — " Inspiration ! Inspiration!" But this is 
very different from that " inspiration " which Bishop Stillingfleet 
happily described as " a Urim and Thummim upon the whole of 
Scripture, light audi perfection in every part." — Origines Sacra?, p. 613. 
Ed. 1675. 

2 Hooker's words are as follows : " This (1 Cor. xi. 12, 13) is that 
which the Prophets mean by those books written full within and with- 
out, which books were so often delivered them to eat, not because God 
fed them with ink and paper, but to teach us that so often as He em- 
ployed them in this heavenly work, they neither spake nor wrote any 
word of their own, but uttered syllable by syllable, as the Spirit put it 



THE INSCRIPTION ON THE CROSS. 



279 



and from whom we are so unwilling to appear to differ 
in the slightest degree, but which cannot stand, for this 
simple reason, that the four Gospels relate, not a fact, 
but a transcript of the very words in the Greek language 
which Pilate ordered to be placed on the cross, and they 
all four record it differently : e. g. 

St. Matt. Ourog Efrriv Ir}(roug o fiao-iXsvg rcov Iou^olkov. 

St. Mark. c O (doMnKevg rcov loubotiobv. 

St. Luke. Ourog e(rriv o fiouriXsug rcov Iqv^olhjov. 

St. John. lycroug Natyopaiog o fiacriXevg rcov lou^aicou. 

Now, were the theory of syllable or verbal (which are 
one and the same) inspiration true, surely, on such a me- 
morable occasion as this, the Evangelists would have been 
moved by the Holy Ghost to recount the exact number 
of words and syUables which the Eoman Governor or- 
dered to be inscribed on that cross whereon the Saviour 
of mankind offered the perfect sacrifice of Himself for the 
sins of the world. In saying this, do we in anywise lessen 
our feelings of inexpressible reverence for the plenary 
inspiration, as it has beeen appropriately termed, of every 
portion of the Sacred Oracles of God ? God forbid. We 
cannot find language sufficiently strong to express our 
hrm belief, that all the writers of both the Old and New 
Testament were equally moved by the Holy Ghost to set 
forth and to declare, on every subject which is there in- 
troduced, whether it be doctrine, prophecy, history, chro- 
nology, philosophy, or science, the truth, the whole 
truth, and nothing but the truth. It is scarcely neces- 
sary to add, that inspiration, as defined either by Professor 
Jowett or the rationalistic school generally, is of a very 



into their moutJis, no otherwise than the harp or the lute doth give a 
sound, according to the discretion of his hands that holdeth and striketh 
it with skill." — Sermon on Part of St. Jude, § 4. 

t 4 



280 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



different nature from the above. When we find one of 
the leaders of that school asserting that " Milton, and 
Shakspeare, and Bacon, and Canticles, and the Apocalypse, 
and the Sermon on the Mount, and the eighth chapter 
to the Eomans, are, in our opinion, all inspired. Inspi- 
ration signifies that action of the Divine Spirit by which, 
apart from all idea of infallibility, all that is good in 
man, beast, or matter, is originated and sustained," 1 — we 
detect at once the great gulf which separates the teaching 
of the Eationalists on the subject of the inspiration of 
Scripture from that of the Catholic Church in all ages. 
The man who places the words of Shakspeare or Bacon 
on a par with those of our Divine Master, or the author 
of the Epistle to the Eomans, proves that his idea of 
inspiration is not a spiritual but an intellectual gift. Per- 
haps one of the strongest evidences in proof that the 
sacred writers were inspired in a very different way from 
the most intellectual of mankind, whether Christian or 
heathen, is seen, not merely in the different way in which 
sin, both original and actual, is treated by the one and the 
other, but by the gigantic and ceaseless efforts which 
Pagan and Papal persecutors, in ancient and modern 
times, have made to prevent the circulation, and to de- 
stroy the existence, of that which condemns so strongly 
our inherent self-righteousnes, viz. the word of God. 
It is not too much to say, that had one tenth part of the 
care and trouble been taken to destroy the works of 
either Plato or Cicero, or Shakspeare or Bacon, shortly after 
the time they were respectively composed, as was taken 
either during the time of the Diocletian persecution or 
at the commencement of the Eeformation in the sixteenth 
century, to root out the Scriptures from the possession of 
living men, there would not have been a trace or vestige 



1 Macnanght on the Doctrine of Inspiration, p. 192. 



THE PRESERVATION OP THE SCRIPTURES. 281 

that such philosophers had ever existed, except so far as 
their works might have been quoted or referred to by 
contemporary writers. How little do many readers of 
the Bible reflect what it must have cost the Christians of 
the early ages merely to rescue the sacred treasure from 
the rage of the heathen. Isaac Taylor, in his work on 
" Ancient Christianity," justly remarks, that, " In that 
fresh morning hour of the Church, there belonged to the 
sincere followers of Christ a fulness of faith in the reali- 
ties of the unseen world, such as, in later ages, has been 
reached only by a very few eminent and meditative indi- 
viduals ; the many felt a persuasion which is now felt only 
by a few." How touching is the account which Anthony 
Dalaber, a young Oxford undergraduate, gives of the 
persecution which the Papal authorities were beginning 
to make on account of the recent introduction of the 
translated Scriptures into that famous University. Speak- 
ing of the departure of his friend, Master Garrett, he says, 
" When he was gone down the stairs from my chamber, I 
straightways did shut my chamber door, and went into 
my study, and taking the New Testament in my hands, 
kneeled down on my knees, and with many a deep sigh 
and salt tear I did, with much deliberation, read over the 
tenth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, praying that God 
would endue his tender and lately-born little flock in 
Oxford with heavenly strength, by His Holy Spirit, that 
quietly, to their own salvation, with all godly patience, 
they might bear Christ's heavy cross, which I now 
saw was presently to be laid on their young and weak 
backs, unable to bear so huge a burden without the great 
help of His Holy Spirit," 1 

The fatal error of Professor Jowett, on the subject of 
inspiration, consists in his inability to distinguish be- 



Froncle's History of England, vol. n. ch. vi. 



282 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



tween the action of the Holy Ghost upon those who 
were " moved " to convey the revealed Will of God to 
man, and who were so far infallible, and those lesser 
gifts of the Spirit, the author of every good thought, or 
word, or work, which multitudes of what are commonly 
called " uninspired " men are privileged to possess. For 
example, there is a very beautiful passage in the essay on 
which we are now commenting : " It is, perhaps," says 
the author, " the greatest difficulty of all to enter into 
the meaning of the words of Christ, so gentle, so human, 
so divine, neither adding to them, nor marring their 
simplicity. The interpreter needs nothing short of 
c fashioning ' in himself the image of the mind of Christ. 
He has to be born again into a new spiritual or intellec- 
tual world, from which the thoughts of this world are shut 
out. It is one of the highest tasks on which the labour 
of a life can be spent, to bring the words of Christ a little 
nearer the heart of man." 1 This is very beautiful and 
very true, and must be the thoughts of a man, we would 
fain hope, influenced by the Spirit of God, though differ- 
ing in quantity, and in quality, from the extraordinary 
gifts with which the " holy men " were endowed, who, 
when engaged in writing the oracles of God, " spake as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The Essayist, how- 
ever, will not assent to this distinction, for he declares that 
" the word (SsoTrvsua-rog) 6 given by inspiration of God,' 
is spoken of the Old Testament, and is assumed to apply 
to the New, including that Epistle in which the expression 
occurs ; " and he is venturesome enough to assert that the 
writings of the most eminent of the authors of the New 
Testament, the Apostle Paul, prove his non-inspiration 
according to the common use of the term, by " the course 
of events correcting his expectation of the coming of 



2 Essays and Reviews, p. 380. 



ON THE INSINUATION OF SCRIPTURE. 



283 



Christ." We need scarcely add that there is not the 
slightest ground for this accusation, and the Essayist, 
with his usual caution, has avoided ■ quoting any text in 
proof of his "painful scepticism," but contents himself 
with supposing that his ipse dixit will be accepted, to the 
detriment of the infallible word of God. 

Let us, however, consider what St. Paul really taught 
on the subject of what is generally called the plenary 1 
inspiration of the Bible. "All Scripture is given by 
inspiration of God, . . . that the man of God may be per- 
fect, throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim. 
hi. 16, 17.) It will of course be objected, by Professor 
Jowett and his school, that the expression, " all Scrip- 
ture," cannot refer to the New Testament which was not 
then completed, but must be confined to the Old ; and as 
this opinion has been held by some commentators, it may 
be right to mention the grounds for believing that the 
Apostle included both, in so far as the latter was then 
written. St. Paul had just before stated that Timothy 
had known, from a child, " the Holy Scriptures " (ja kpa 



1 The Rev. B. Cowie, in his Address on the Chief Points of Con- 
troversy between Orthodoxy and Rationalism, to the Fellows of Sion 
College, London, March 25th, 1861, says, " I receive the Bible gene- 
rally as the word of God, and I believe that it is OeoTrvevarog. But if 
you go beyond what the Church has decreed and talk of i verbal ' inspi- 
ration, and £ plenary ' inspiration, you are importing into the discussion 
words which are neither in the Bible nor in the forms of the Church ; 
and you have no right whatever to set them up as standards of orthodoxy. 
You make your interpretation of inspiration the standard, and not in- 
spiration itself ;" — which is so far true ; yet are we obliged to adopt the 
use of the well known term "plenary" in order to distinguish it on the 
on>e hand from " verbal " inspiration, which cannot be sustained, and on 
the other from those intellectual gifts, with which such men as Milton 
and others were endowed, and which the Rationalists confidently assume 
to be the same as the gifts of the sacred writers, who were " filled with 
the Holy Ghost," 



284 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



ypa^fxara), which, doubtless, meant the Old Testament, 
in the knowledge of which Timothy's mother, who was a 
Jewess, would naturally instruct her child. But the next 
verse, beginning, " All Scripture," contains a general 
statement, and, therefore, the Apostle uses another term 
(warra <x<£*?), which was purposely meant to include every 
writing inspired by the Spirit of God to the time when 
that Epistle was penned, and as it was probably the last 
Epistle which St. Paul wrote, the whole of the New 
Testament had been completed, with the exception of the 
writings of St. John. This will appear more evident if 
we read the passage literally and without the particle kol), 
which is omitted in almost all the versions, and by many 
of the Fathers, and certainly does not agree well with the 
text. Hence, the Greek may be rendered, te Every writing 
God-breathed is profitable for doctrine," &c. The Syriac 
version renders ^o-n-vzua-Tog written by the Spirit, and the 
Ethiopic, by the Spirit of God. Knowing, therefore, that 
the Apostles had been breathed upon by the God-man 
Christ Jesus, and had been " filled with the Holy Ghost," 
according to the Saviour's promise, as was visibly mani- 
fested on the day of Pentecost 1 , their writings must 
necessarily come under the term " God-breathed," and, as 
such, "profitable" yea, and at that time more profitable 
than those of the Old Testament, "for doctrine and 
instruction in righteousness." In the writings of the New 
Testament, as of the Old, there is an instinctive evidence 
that they are not the work of man, and those who are 
not wilfully blind to the truth, gladly recognise in them 
the handwriting of that "friend which sticketh closer 
than a brother," without needing to be told of the human 
channel by which they have been conveyed to us. There 



1 St. Paul, though not called until after Pentecost, was " not a whit 
behind the very chiefest Apostles." 2 Cor. xi. 5. 



EDMUND BURKE ON THE SCI1IFTUKES. 



285 



is a Uriin and a Thummim, in the true sense of the term, 
upon the whole of Scripture, light and perfection in every 
part of it ; and it behoves every one who is anxious for 
the honour of God, as well as for the welfare of his 
fellow-creatures, to rise, as Chalmers has expressed it, 
" like a wall of fire around the integrity and inspiration 
of His word." 

An eminent statesman of the last century, when ad- 
dressing the House of Commons, on the subject of a 
petition from certain clergymen to be relieved from the 
subscription, which, since the Eeformation, the Chiuch 
has very properly required of those who enter the minis- 
try, defined the Bible on this wise : — " The Scripture is 
no one summary of doctrines regularly digested, in which 
a man could not mistake his way ; it is a most venerable 
but most multifarious collection of the records of the 
divine economy ; a collection of an infinite variety of 
cosmogony, theology, history, prophecy, psalmody, mo- 
rality, apologue, allegory, legislation, ethics, carried 
through different books, by different authors, at different 
ages, for different purposes and ends." 1 Had Professor 
Jowett, and the other authors of " Essays and Ee views," 
gone no further in their attempts to undermine the vi- 
tality and power of the Scriptures than the illustrious 
layman whose words are quoted above, no charge could 
have been substantiated against them, as the Church of 
England, while affirming that " Holy Scripture containeth 
all things necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not 
read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be 
required of any man that it should be believed as an 
Article of the Faith," has carefully abstained from deter- 
mining anything respecting the history, the prophecies, 



1 Edmund Burke on Clerical Petition for Relief from Subscription, 
Feb. 6th, 1772, 



286 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



or the scientific statements contained in the Oracles of 
God ; leaving it to the unfettered courage of her faithful 
children to defend, as best they may, the claim which 
Scripture, in its entirety, makes to be the inspired word 
of God, against the hostile assaults of subtle adversaries, 
or of accomplished and pretended friends. 

" None are so blind as those who refuse to see," is an 
old adage, with much of truth in it ; and our Essayist is 
a striking example of this in his repeated errors on the 
subject of inspiration. Speaking of "the results of his- 
torical inquiries," of what is recorded in the Bible, he 
observes, they " cannot be barred by the dates or narrative 
of Scripture , neither should they, be made to wind round 
into agreement with them. . . . The recent chrono- 
logical discoveries from Egyptian monuments do not tend 
to overthrow revelation, nor the Ninevite inscriptions to 
support it The use of them on either side may, indeed, 
arouse a popular interest in them ; it is apt to turn a 
scientific inquiry into a semi-religious controversy. And 
to religion either use is almost equally injurious, because 
seeming to rest truths important to human life on the 
mere accident of an archseological discovery. Is it to be 
thought that Christianity gains anything from the deci- 
phering of the names of some Assyrian and Babylonian 
kings, contemporaries chiefly with the later Jewish his- 
tory ? As httle as it ought to lose from the appearance 
of a contradictory narrative of the Exodus in the 
chamber of an Egyptian temple of the year, B.C. 1500. 1 
This latter supposition may not be very probable. But it 
is worth while to ask ourselves the question, whether we 



1 We do not know to what Professor Jowett here alludes, whether it 
be to the " Exodus Papyri," published by Mr. Heath, or something 
else ; but we have already adduced ample proof that every real Egyptian 
discovery bearing upon the subject does " not contradict," but does 
confirm the truth of the Biblical narrative of the Exodus. 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 



287 



can be right in maintaining any view of religion, which 
can be affected by such a probability " (p. 350). Keligion, 
or in other words, the " plenary " inspiration of Scripture, 
assuredly does not depend upon " such a probability" but 
it is the certainty of the agreement between the state- 
ments in the Bible, on every subject therein mentioned, 
with recent archaeological' discoveries, that constitutes one 
of the proofs of inspiration, which, though not wanted 
by the humble and sincere believer in Eevelation, are 
sufficient to put to shame the infidel, the sceptic, the 
rationalist, and the miserable quibbler, who, in the super- 
ciliousness of his own little mind, and the unconscious 
magnitude of his profound ignorance, fancies he has 
detected a flaw in the unerring word of the Almighty 
and Infinite Jehovah. 

We meet Professor Jowett's " painfully sceptical " in- 
sinuations by a direct negative. We confidently affirm 
that the recent chronological discoveries from the 
Egyptian monuments tend to support revelation, and the 
Mnevite inscriptions amply confirm the same. It is un- 
necessary to repeat what has been so fully considered in 
our examination of " Bunsen's Biblical Kesearches," with 
respect to the Egyptian monuments being in perfect har- 
mony with Scripture history and Scripture chronology, 
though we may add another instance of the value and 
importance of such proofs, by referring to Champollion's 
discovery of the name of "Judah" on the Temple of 
Karnak. On one of the walls of that most splendid of 
Egyptian structures, originally built by Amenophis III., 
the successor of the Pharaoh who was drowned in the 
Eecl Sea, there is a representation of sixty-three pri- 
soners being presented to Pharaoh Shishak by his god 
Arnunra. Amongst them is a turreted oval or cartouche, 
which the genius of Champollion enabled him to decipher 
as 44 Judah Melika," signifying the kingdom (not the king) 
of Judah; for the final hieroglyph is as determinative 



288 



EE V ELATION AND SCIENCE, 



of the country, as the turreted cartouche is of a captured 
fortress enclosing foreign prisoners. Now, the statement in 
Scripture exactly harmonises with the induction from the 
Egyptian hieroglyph. " It came to pass, that in the fifth 
year of King Eehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up 
against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against 
the Lord, with twelve hundred chariots and threescore 
thousand horsemen : and the people were without number 
that came with him out of Egypt : and he took the fenced 
cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. . . . 
So Shishak king of Egypt came up against J erusalem, and 
took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and 
the treasures of the king's house ; he took all : he carried 
away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made." 1 
By this it appears that the fifth year of King Eehoboam 
synchronised with the reign of Pharaoh Shishak, which 
agrees with the chronology of Manetho, Bunsen non ob- 
stante ; and thus we have a proof of the value of 
Egyptian discovery in an important synchronism between 
the reigns of two kings, in contradiction to Professor 
Jowett's inference. And more than this, since it is evi- 
dent from the account in the chronicles of the kingdom 
of Judah, that only the city was captured by Pharaoh 
Shishak, but not the person of King Eehoboam, so we 
find, by a careful criticism of the hieroglyph, that the 
Egyptian record of the same perfectly agrees thereto, 
inasmuch as the country, and not the individual king, is 
described as having been conquered by the power of 
Egypt. 

So likewise with reference to " the Ninevite in- 
scriptions," the discovery by Dr. Hincks of the name 
of " Jehu, the son of Omri," i. e. of the house of Omri, 
on the Nimroud obelisk (now standing in the British 
Museum), who is there represented as acknowledging the 



1 2 Chronicles, xii. 2—9. 



VALUE OF THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 



289 



supremacy of Temen-Bar *, the King of Assyria, is one of 
several proofs in testimony of the connection between 
Assyria and Israel, which, in the following century 
(the eighth B.C.), is more particularly mentioned in Scrip- 
ture, on account of the judgments which the former was 
permitted to inflict upon the latter. And as it is related in 
the 2nd Book of Kings that Jehu was guilty of the same 
idolatry whereby his predecessor, Jeroboam, had made 
Israel to sin, notwithstanding that he destroyed the 
worship of Baal, we may fairly conclude that he became 
for a short time tributary to the King of Assyria, as a 
punishment, according to the reading of the Mmroud 
obelisk. Or, take the confirmation of what is said in 
Scripture respecting Hezekiah being vanquished by Sen- 
nacherib, according to the inscription of the annals of 
his reign, found by Mr. Layard in his palace at Kou- 
yunjik, and deciphered by Sir Henry Eawlinson. We 
shall better understand the value of this "Nmevite in- 
scription in support" of the truth of Revelation, by placing 
the two accounts in parallel columns. 

HOLY SCRIPTURE. THE NINEVITE INSCRIPTION. 

" Now, in the fourteenth year of " Because Hezekiah, King of 
King Hezekiah, did Sennacherib Judaea, did not submit to my 
King of Assyria come up against yoke, forty- six of his strong-fenced 
all the fenced cities of Judah, and cities, and innumerable smaller 
took them. And Hezekiah, King towns which depended upon them, 
of Judah, sent to the King of As- I took and plundered ; but I left 
syria to Lachish, saying, I have to him Jerusalem, his capital city, 
offended ; return from me : that and some of the inferior towns 
which thou puttest on me will I around it. . . . And because He- 
bear. And the King of Assyria zekiah still refused to pay me ho- 
appointed unto Hezekiah, King of mage, I attacked and carried off 



1 There are good chronological grounds for believing that Temen-Bar 
was on the throne when Jonah visited Nineveh, and if so, must have 
been the king who submitted to the admonition of the Prophet in a way 
that few Christian sovereigns have been known to do. 

U 



290 REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 

Judah, 300 talents of silver, and the whole population, fixed and 
30 talents of gold. And Hezekiah nomade, which dwelt around Je- 
gave him all the silver that was rusalem, with 30 talents of gold 
found in the house of the Lord, and 800 talents of silver 2 , the ac- 
and in the treasures of the king's cumulated wealth of the nobles of 
house. At that time did Hezekiah Hezekiah's court, and of their 
cut off the gold from the doors of daughters, with the officers of his 
the temple of the Lord, and from palace, men-slaves and women- 
the pillars which Hezekiah, King slaves. I returned to Nineveh 
of Judah, had overlaid, and gave and I accounted their spoil for the 
it to the King of Assyria." 1 tribute which he refused to pay 

me." 

It is impossible to conceive a more undesigned evi- 
dence, or a more satisfactory proof of the truth of the 
historical portion of Revelation, than the above Ninevite 
inscription hi support of the same. Again, in the above- 
mentioned palace of Kouyunjik, a large number of pieces 
of fine clay have been discovered, bearing the impressions 
of seals, which once had been affixed, like modem official 
seals of wax, to documents written on leather, papyrus, 
or parchment, some specimens of which are now in the 
British Museum. The greater part bear Assyrian, 
Egyptian, or Phoenician symbols. Amongst them are 
two Egyptian impressions of a royal signet, with the 
name Shabaka in a cartouche, with an hieroglyphic in- 
scription above, which reads Netr-nfr-nb-ar-oht, i. e. " the 
perfect God, the Lord who produces things." This 
Pharaoh Shabaka is the same as the second king of the 
twenty-sixth or Ethiopian dynasty, termed in Manetho's 
list %ifii%a)$ or Xsur^og ; in 2 Kings, xviii. 4, 44 So ;" 
Hebrew, 8)0 ; LXX. 2?j7<% or %wa. This seal assumes, 
therefore, a most important character, in showhig the 
synchronism of the three monarchs of Assyria, Egypt, 



1 2 Kings, xviii. 13 — 16. 

2 The difference between the 300 talents of silver in the one account, 
and 800 in the other, may be accounted for by distinguishing between 
the money and the metal of the Temple. 



A PHOENICIAN INSCRIPTION. 



291 



and Israel ; as it must have been affixed to some treaty 
between the sovereigns of the first two of these kingdoms, 
after the " conspiracy of Hoshea, King of Israel," men- 
tioned in the Book of Kings, who refused to pay tribute 
to " Shahnaneser, King of Assyria," when he sent " mes- 
sengers to So, King of Egypt," for help. This is likewise 
one of many proofs of the value of the " Ninevite in- 
scriptions." And another seal, discovered at the same 
place, with, a Phoenician inscription, singularly confirms 
the truth of Scripture testimony. According to the al- 
phabet of Gesenius \ the inscription might be read, pho- 
netically, as Eldebsh, or Elredsh, or Eldedsh, or Elbrebsh. 
Now, Josepkus 2 states, that when Shahnaneser invaded 
Syria and Phoenicia in a hostile manner, as he appears to 
have done, from 2 Kings, xviii. 5, the King of Phoenicia's 
name was Eluleus, or Pyas, or Pulas, as various MSS. 
read it. Further, Menander, who translated the archives 
of Tyre from the Phoenician into the Greek language, 
mentions that " the King of Assyria overran all Phoenicia, 
and speedily made peace with them all; and, upon the 
subsequent revolt of Sidon, and Ace, and Palsetyrus, he 
was assisted by the Phoenicians with sixty ships." This 
will account for the existence of a Phoenician seal in the 
palace of Sennacherib, the successor of Shalmaneser on 
the throne of Assyria, which may possibly represent the 
name of the king reigning in Tyre at the time when 
Shalmaneser first overran the country, and who after- 
wards must have made a treaty of peace with him, the 
seal to which document exists at this present clay. We 
have thus adduced sufficient evidence in disproof of the 
Essayist's mistaken idea, that 44 the Ninevite inscriptions 
do not tend to support revelation." 



1 Script. Ling. Phcen. Monmnenta, pars tertia, tab. 1. 

2 Antiq. ix. 14, 2. 

u 2 



292 



KEVELATION AND SCIEXCE. 



Professor Jowett seeuis to be conscious that his mode 
of interpreting Scripture cannot be a sound one, and to 
anticipate the censure which he expected to receive on 
the promulgation of his unfounded and untenable theory. 
When he observes, " it is probable that some of the pre- 
ceding statements may be censured as a wanton exposure 
of the difficulties of Scripture " (p. 372), he forgets that 
the exposure is not that of any real difficulty to the 
humble believer in Revelation^ but only to those who are 
oppressed by that " smouldering scepticism " of which he 
has proved himself so accomplished an adept. " No 
one," he complacently adds, " is willing to break through 
the reticence which is observed on these subjects ; hence 
a sort of smouldering scepticism. It is probable that the 
distrust is greatest at the time when the greatest efforts 
are made to conceal it. Doubt comes in at the window 
when inquiry is denied at the door" (p. 373). Prohibi- 
tion against seeking to know the mind of God, as revealed 
in His word, has never been the action or the endeavour of 
Christ's Holy Catholic Church. Such has ever been the 
exclusive property of the apostate portion of the Church, 
according to the prophecy, which has received so striking 
a fulfilment in our fallen sister of Eome. The Church of 
Christ glories in inquiry, and has ever done so since her 
Master's virtual command : " Search the Scriptures ; for 
in them ye think ye have eternal life : and they are they 
which testify of me." 1 And we know how the Apostles, 
the inspired founders of the Church, commended " the 
noble Berceans" for obedience to the divine command, when 
they tested the doctrine delivered to them by comparing 
it with, and interpreting it through, the words of the Old 
Testament. As an exemplification of " the smouldering 
scepticism " of the Essayist, and his manifest unfitness as a 



1 St. John, v. 39. 



PE0FESS0E JOWETT PEOPHECY. 



293 



sound interpreter of Scripture, we need only adduce one 
more passage from his Essay, but which painfully mani- 
fests the perversion and the confusion of his mental 
powers. " The failure of a prophecy is never admitted, in 
spite of Scripture and of history (Jer. xxxvi. 30 ; Isaiah, 
xxiii. ; Amos, vii. 10 — 17); the mention of a name 
later than the supposed age of the prophet is not allowed, 
as in other writings, to be taken in evidence of the date 
(Isaiah, xlv. 1) " (p. 343). JSTow, considering that the 
first of these instances, quoted in proof of " the failure of 
prophecy" foretold the cessation of the royal line of 
David as rulers in Jerusalem ; the second the judgment 
upon and the destruction of the famous city of Tyre ; 
and the third the captivity of Israel by the King of 
Assyria, one cannot but be amazed at the limited know- 
ledge of history displayed in this opinion, as well as at 
the temerity with which the Essayist has ventured to put 
it forth. With regard to his accusation of refusing to 
allow the mention of a certain king's name in the pro- 
phecy of Isaiah to be taken for an evidence of its date, 
as in other writings, this is a mere rechauffe argument on 
his part against the inspiration of the prophet, just as the 
infidel school in ancient times, and the rationalists in 
modern, with perverse consistency, have endeavoured to 
deny the inspiration of the prophecies of Daniel. 

Since the very example which Professor Jowett brings 
forward against the truth of Isaiah's prophecyis in reality 
one of the strongest evidences in its favour, it will be neces- 
sary for us to give it a brief consideration. The prophecies 
of Isaiah were delivered " in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, 
Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah," reigns which oc- 
cupied, as we know, the whole of the eighth century B.C. 
At some time or other of that century, probably during 
the reign of the last-mentioned king, and therefore to- 
wards the close of that century, Isaiah was inspired to 

u 3 



294 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



prophesy : " Thus saith the Lord. Thy Eecleerner ... of 
Cyrus, or Coresh (Hebr.), my shepherd, he shall perform 
all my pleasure ; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt 
be built ; and to the Temple, thy foundation shall be laid. 
Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus (Coresh), 
whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before 
Him ; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before 
Him the two-leaved gates ; and the gates shall not be shut." 1 
As Cyrus' permission to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem, 
as recorded by Ezra (i. 1, 2), occurred within a year or 
two of the fall of Babylon, which took place B.C. 538, it 
is a very natural objection, both for the infidel and the 
unhappy man whose brain is bewildered by a " smoulder- 
ing scepticism," to make, that such a clear and positive 
announcement of an historical event could not have been 
recorded until after the event had taken place ; but when 
we know the intense care which was taken by the Jews 
to preserve the purity of the text, together with the fact 
that both the internal and external evidence is over- 
whelmingly convincing in disproof of this modern objection, 
(for we do not believe that the opponents of Christianity, 
in ancient times, rejected Isaiah as they did Daniel), we 
may dismiss it with a sigh at the marvellous infatuation 
which has beclouded the mind of the Essayist, while we 
proceed to point out very briefly the evidence which this 
prophecy affords that Isaiah wrote by the direct inspi- 
ration of God. 

We hold it to be an incontrovertible fact that, as 
long as the daily service of the Temple was carried on, 
including the seventy years' intermission during the Ba- 
bylonish captivity, since many of the elders amongst the 
Jews lived through that unhappy period in their his- 
tory, it was impossible that any interpolations of the Old 



1 Isaiah, xliv. 24, 28; xlv. 1. 



PK0PHEC7 CONCERNING CYRUS. 



295 



Testament could have taken place ; as all which have 
crept into the text must have clone so subsequent to the 
destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple by the Soman in- 
vasion. The LXX. translators in the third century B.C., 
with the exception of the word " shepherd," which our 
present copies render tyovsiv instead, give the passage as it 
stands in the Hebrew, translating the Hebrew Coresh, as 
we have before noticed, by its Greek equivalent, xupog, or 
Cyrus. Josephus, in the first century of the Christian 
era, relates, that the cause of Cyrus having given the Jews 
permission to return to their country, and rebuild their 
Temple, was in consequence of " his reading the book 
which Isaiah left behind him of his prophecies ; for this 
prophet said that God had spoken thus to him in a secret 
vision : ' My will is, that Cyrus, whom I have appointed 
to be king over many and great nations, should send back 
my people to then own land and build my Temple.' This 
was foretold by Isaiah 140 years before the Temple was 
demolished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read this, and. 
admired the divine power, an earnest desire and ambition 
seized upon him to fulfil what was so written." 1 

If we refer to the heathen historians, we have sufficient 
authority for asserting that the prediction was amply 
verified by the event, which took place about 200 years 
after the prophecy was delivered. The name Coresh, in 
the Persian tongue, signifies the sun, from which. Cyrus 
had his name, as Ctesias 2 and Plutarch 3 affirm, and has 
some affinity to the Hebrew word cheres (Job, ix. 7) of the 
same signification ; though Scaliger 4 considers the name 
Cyrus to signify food in the Persian language, which 
answers to the character given him in" Scripture, as shep- 



1 Antiq. xi. 1, 2. 

3 In Vita Artaxerxis. 



2 Excerpta, p. 648, ed. Gronov. 
4 Ernendatio Temp. i. 6. 
u 4 



296 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



herd. Justin 1 says he had this name given him whilst 
he was among shepherds, by whom he was brought up. 
And Xenophon, in his " Institution of Cyrus," represents 
him as having been accustomed to say, " That the business 
of a good shepherd and of a good king were very near 
alike ; for a shepherd," he said, " ought to provide for 
the happiness of his flock, and make use of them consis- 
tently with the happiness of those creatures ; and that a 
king ought in the same manner to make men and cities 
happy, and in the same manner to make use of them." 2 
The prophecy, in addition to the title given to Cyrus of 
being a shepherd, for the purpose of restoring the scat- 
tered sheep of Israel to the fold in Jerusalem, which 
God intended for them, specifies that he was to be a 
prominent subduer of nations, and that the Lord would 
" loose the loins of kings to open before him the two- 
leaved gates." Of the fact, that Cyrus was a great con- 
queror of many nations, there can be no doubt ; and we 
apprehend that the meaning of Cod loosing the loins of 
kings, in order that " the two-leaved gates" should be 
opened to him in an unusual manner, must refer to what 
took place in Babylon, at the time when the handwriting 
appeared on the walls, which announced the destruction 
of that doomed dynasty, as Daniel relates that " then the 
king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts trou- 
bled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and 
his knees smote one against the other." 3 We know from 
profane testimony, that on that night the gates of Babylon 
within the city, leading from the streets to the river, were 
providentially left open, when Cyrus penetrated the city 
with his army through its channel, in consequence of the 
general disorder occasioned by the great feast which was 



Hist, ex Trogo, lib. i. c. 5. 2 Cyropaedia, lib. viii. § 18. 

3 Daniel, v. 6. 



CYRUS' CAPTURE OF BABYLON. 



297 



then being celebrated. Had it not been so, the Persians, 
as Herodotus (i. 191) declares, would have been shut up 
in the bed of the river, and taken as in a net, and all 
destroyed. Xenophon relates that, as soon as the noise 
of the final attack began, "the king (Belshazzar) com- 
manded his attendants to examine what the matter was, 
who ran out, throwing open the gates. While the Per- 
sians, under Gobryas and Gadatas, as soon as they saw 
them loose, broke in and put an end to the king." 1 The 
prophecy then of Isaiah respecting Cyrus being the ap- 
pointed instrument for punishing the King of Babylon, as 
well as for permitting the captive Jews to return to 
Jerusalem, and to rebuild their desolate city, is one to 
which every faithful believer in Revelation gladly ap- 
peals in proof of the Bible being written by men who 
were moved by the Holy Ghost to foretell things which 
would happen after their day ; and we must deeply lament, 
though without surprise, the deplorable scepticism which 
can induce any man, especially a presbyter of the Church 
of England, to argue that it was the interpolation of an un- 
principled forger, introduced into the book some time after 
the event which it professes to predict had taken place. 

One more instance, in conclusion, we must notice, with 
regard to Professor Jowett's mode of interpreting Scrip- 
ture. Speaking of the glorious future which awaits the 
faithful followers of the Eedeemer, on the morn of re- 
surrection, he observes : " A recent commentator appears 
willing to peril religion on the literal truth of such an 
expression as 6 We shall be caught up to meet the Lord in 
the air.' Would he be equally ready to stake Christianity 
on the literal meaning of the words, ' Where their worm 
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched ? ' " (p. 403). 
Elsewhere he says, " When it is gravely urged that from 



Cyropsedia, lib. vii. § 5. 



298 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



such passages as 8 Kings shall be thy nursing fathers,' we 
are to collect the relations of Church and State, or from 
the pictorial description of Isaiah, that it is to be in- 
ferred there will be a reign of Christ on earth, it is a 
mere assumption of the forms of reasoning by the imagi- 
nation " (p. 409). If, by the first of these quotations, 
Professor Jowett means, as his words seem to imply, that 
St. Paul's declaration of the future rapture of the Church 
at the coming of the Lord, as declared in his first Epistle 
to the Thessalonians, is to be equally discredited with the 
doctrine of the eternity of punishment to the wicked, we 
can only lament the blindness of his spiritual vision, and 
pray that he may be speedily brought to a healthier and 
better state of mind. In the second quotation we have 
another of the many instances of the palpable unfitness 
of the Essayist to be a safe guide in the interpretation of 
Scripture, as witnessed in the Essay before us. It is as 
great a mistake to deny that Scripture foretells the future 
reign of Christ upon earth, as it is to infer the present 
connection between Church and State from the promise 
that "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers," which can 
only pertain to the restoration of the Jews, and has 
nothing to do with Christianity. 

If we wanted to see what Scripture teaches respecting 
Christ's future reign, it would be sufficient to read atten- 
tively, and to accept submissively, without attempting to 
explain this doctrine any more than other unfathomable 
mysteries with which the word of God abounds, such 
clear and positive declarations as these : " Thou hast 
redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, 
and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us 
unto our God kings and priests : and we shall reign on the 
earth " (Eev. v. 9, 10). And again it is written, " They 
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years " (Eev. 
xx. 4). If language is to be understood in the plain and 



ANCIENT OPINIONS CONCERNING THE MILLENNIUM. 299 

literal meaning thereof, there can be no difficulty about 
accepting the above texts, without seeking to make 
ourselves wise above what is written. And that many of 
the early Christians so received the doctrine we may 
fairly conclude by the following extracts from their 
writings. 

Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, who is said by Irenaeus 
to have been a hearer of the Apostle John, and a com- 
panion of Polycarp, declared, as Eusebius tells us, " that 
there shall be a thousand years after the resurrection of 
the dead, wherein the kingdom of Christ shall subsist 
upon this earth." Eusebius, after condemning the doc- 
trine, adds, that " Papias gave occasion to a great many 
ecclesiastical writers after him to be of the same opinion, 
who respected the antiquity of the man, as Irenaeus and 
the rest who have maintained that opinion." 1 

Justin Martyr, a.d. 130, in his dialogue with Trypho, 
the Jew, says, in reply to his opponent's question : " Tell 
me truly, do you know that this place, Jerusalem, will be 
rebuilt ; and do you expect that your people will be 
gathered together, and rejoice with Christ, and with the 
patriarchs and prophets, and with those of our race, and 
of those who became proselytes before the coining of 
your Christ ? " — " I and many others hold these senti- 
ments, and believe, assuredly, that thus it will come to 
pass, though I have intimated to you that many Christians 
of pure and pious dispositions 2 clo not acknowledge it. 
But I and those Christians who are orthodox (opGoyvwfxovsg) 
in all things, know that there will be a resurrection of 
the flesh, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, rebuilt, and 
adorned, and enlarged, as the prophets Ezekiel and 



1 Hist. Ecc. iii. 31. 

2 Mede supposes that this clause should be read in the negative, 
which the context appears to support. 



300 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Isaiah and the others unanimously declare. A certain 
man amongst us, whose name was John, one of the 
Apostles of Christ, in a revelation made to him, pro- 
phesied that believers in our Christ should live a thousand 
years in Jerusalem, and after this should be the universal 
resurrection and general judgment of all." 1 

Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons, a.d. 180, speaks of the doc- 
trine as something undoubted, questioned only by " some 
accounted orthodox," and denied by those who held 
" opinions borrowed from heretical discourses, in igno- 
rance of the dispensations of God, and the mystery of 
the resurrection of the just, and of the kingdom, which 
is the beginning of incorruption, by which kingdom those 
who are accounted worthy are gradually habituated to 
receive God." 2 The doctrine of Irenasus is, that after 
the resurrection the saints should also, in different degrees 
of nearness, according to their deserts, in the holy city, 
in Paradise, or in Heaven, enjoy the sight of the Lord, 
" for everywhere shall the Saviour be seen, as they who 
see Him shall be worthy." 3 For this he quotes certain 
presbyters who had seen and heard St. John, and whom 
he distinguishes from Papias. He also observes that " all 
these and other sayings (of Isaiah) are without contro- 
versy spoken of the resurrection of the just, which takes 
place after the coining of Antichrist, and the destruction 
of all nations under him, in which the Christians shall 
reign on the earth, growing by the sight of the Lord, and 
through Him shall be habituated to receive the glory of 
God the Father, and shall, in the kingdom, receive con- 
versation and communion and unity of spiritual things 
with the holy angels." 4 

Tertullian, a.d. 200, taught the doctrine of the millen- 



1 Dial, cum Tryph. c. 80. 
3 Advers. Hagr. v. 36, 1. 



2 Advers. Hasr. v. 31, 1. 
4 Ibid, v. 31, 1. 



ANCIENT OPINIONS CONCERNING THE MILLENNIUM. 301 

nium in several of his works, as De Spectac, Be Cam. 
Resur., and more especially in his work against Marcion, 
where he refers to a work On the hope of the Faithful, now 
lost, in which he speaks of having treated the subject more 
at length. He distinctly limits the joys of the millennium 
to spiritual pleasures, observing, " This Jerusalem, we say, 
is provided by God for receiving the saints upon the re- 
surrection, and refreshing them with the abundance of all 
spiritual good things, in compensation for those which 
in the world we have either despised or lost. . . . We 
confess our belief in a kingdom promised us upon earth, 
and before heaven, but in a different state of being, viz., 
after the resurrection, for a thousand years in the city of 
Jerusalem, divinely built, 'brought down from heaven,' 
which the Apostle also calls 4 our Mother from above.' 
This both Ezekiel knew and the Apostle St. John saw." 1 

Commodian, a.d. 250, a Latin author and contemporary 
with Cyprian, u heartily embraced the doctrine of the ex- 
pected millennium," according to Lardner 2 , as he spake 
of " the believers' return in the golden age, when the hea- 
venly city shall descend at the time of the first resurrection, 
and those who were devoted to Christ shall receive good 
things, as formerly they received evil things, and shall 
continue for a thousand years." 

Victorinus, Bishop of Pettaw, in Germany, a.d. 300, 
observes, concerning the doctrine, " This is that true Sab- 
bath in which Christ is to reign with his elect," as Lactan- 
tius at a later period taught, " Christ shall hold converse 
with men a thousand years." 3 

Lastly, St. Augustine, a.d. 400, whose opinion on the 
doctrine of the millennium subsequently underwent a 

1 Adv. Marc. iii. 24. 

2 Credibility of the Gospel History, pt. ii. c. 49. 

3 De Fabr. Mundi, apud D. Doct. Cave, p. 104. 



302 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



change, originally taught " That eighth day (St. John, xx. 
26) signifies the new life at the end of the world ; the 
seventh signifies the peaceful rest of the saints which shall 
be on the earth. For the Lord will reign on the earth with 
His saints, as the Scriptures say, and will have a Church 
here, where no evil shall enter. For the Church shall 
appear first in great brightness and dignity and righteous- 
ness." 1 After his change (for which he had just reason 
in the immoderate carnality respecting the doctrine enter- 
tained and promulgated by some of his contemporaries), 
he speaks very tenderly of those who rightly held it, ob- 
serving that "the opinion would be at all events objec- 
tionable, if it were believed that the saints should in that 
Sabbath have spiritual joys through the presence of the 
Lord. For we likewise thought so formerly." 2 

Such was the state of the doctrine until the early part 
of the fifth century, held by most but questioned by some. 
The first who openly impugned it, as far as we know, was 
Origen, who carried his system of allegorising almost 
everything to such an extent, that he even denied the 
doctrine of eternal punishment. The next was his pupil 
Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, who denied the God- 
head of the Holy Spirit. The third was Jerome, who ap- 
pears to have had no idea of that fundamental doctrine 
of experimental religion, viz., the " being justified, or ac- 
counted righteous before God, only for the merit of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our 
own works or deservings," which our Church happily terms 
" a most wholesome doctrine and very full of comfort," 
but to have been sunk in the slough of superstition and 
self-righteousness ; yet he candidly admits that the mass 
of the godly (plurima multitudo) in his day were mille- 



1 Serm. 259, in die Dom. Octav. Pascli. § 1, 2. 

2 De Civitat. Dei, xx. 7. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE MILLENNIUM. 303 

narians, and that those who denied the millennium went 
" contrary to the sentiments of the ancients : of the 
Latins, Tertullian, Victorinus and Lactantius ; and of the 
Greeks, to pass over others, I will mention only Irenseus, 
Bishop of Lyons." Every believer in the Catholic faith, 
then, should remember to his satisfaction and joy that the 
doctrine of the millennium, or, as it is generally termed in 
the present day " millenarian views," like the evening star 
which at one time follows the sun when he sets, and at 
another precedes him in his rise, appears to have been 
firmly held by the most eminent of the Fathers in the best 
and purest days of the Church, after the Sun of Eight- 
eousness had been taken from her, until it sunk below the 
horizon during the darkness of the middle ages, only to re- 
appear with renewed lustre, as it has in our own times, like 
the bright morning star, to usher in "the glorious appear- 
ing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." And 
it surely behoves those, who by faith "have washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," 1 
not only to be assured that they "dwell in Christ and 
Christ in them, that they are one with Christ, and Christ 
with, them," but also of all the results flowing from this 
happy union ; to feel not only that they are "heirs" of 
the Father, and "joint heirs" with the Son, but also to 
enjoy and to. realise daily the privileges of such an exalted 
position. ISTor should we forget to add likewise to the 
value of this doctrine its practical importance ; for, as- 
suredly, he who is longing for the Saviour to take him 
home should be living to God, walking with God, and 
working for God. Blessed, thrice blessed, are they who 
long for ho me ; for they shall soon go home. And they 
who are in earnest on this subject, will be enabled to 
realise the force of what has been so well expressed by 



1 The true reading of Rev. xxii. 14. 



304 



REVELATION AND SCIEXCE. 



that great master in Israel, whose confessions have afforded 
such comfort and instruction to the Church for so many 
centuries : — 44 God, Thou hast formed us for Thyself, 
and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee." 1 

Another question of great importance relating to Holy 
Scripture remains to be considered. Have we now a ge- 
nuine transcript of the Old and New Testaments, as they 
originally came from the hands of the sacred writers, or 
must we submit to the accusation of "forgeries" having 
been designedly introduced into that Book of books, for 
some special object on the part of those who could be 
guilty of so great a crime ? Dr. Temple appears to lean to 
the latter opinion. "If," says the Essayist, "geology proves 
to us that we must not interpret the first chapter of Gene- 
sis literally ; if historical investigation shall show us that 
inspiration, however it may protect the doctrine, yet was 
not empowered to protect the narrative of the inspired 
writers from occasional inaccuracy ; if careful criticism 
shall prove that there have been occasionally interpolations 
and forgeries in that Book, as in many others ; the result 
should still be welcome" (p. 47). The connection be- 
tween Revelation and Science, as set forth in the first 
chapter of Genesis, which the Essayist denies, we have 
endeavoured already to show, when examining the chapter 
on " The Mosaic Cosmogony," to which it more properly 
belongs, and we now content ourselves with quoting, as a 
contrast to Dr. Temple's misconception of Scripture, the 
truer philosophical deduction which a distinguished divine 
has drawn from the same passage of Holy Writ, "It has 
been said," remarks Dr. Chalmers, "that geology under- 
mines our faith hi the inspiration of the Bible. This is a 
false alarm. The writings of Moses do not fix the anti- 
quity of the globe ; if they fix anything at all, it is only 

1 St. Augustine, Confess, i. 1. 



OMISSIONS IN THE HEBREW TEXT. 305 

the antiquity of the species." 1 We have already attempted 
to show that "inspiration" has "protected the narrative of 
the writers" of Scripture equally with "the doctrine" in 
considering the results of " Bunsen's Biblical Eesearches." 
"Forgeries" in the Bible we most distinctly deny, and we 
unhesitatingly challenge the most "careful criticism" to 
produce any well-authenticated attempt at such in God's 
word. That there have been interpolations, omissions, 
and mistakes, affecting both doctrine and history, in our 
present copies of the sacred text, every scholar will readily 
admit, as the following examples may serve to show, but 
such cannot affect the Scriptures themselves, nor justly 
expose them to the charge of forgery ; and it is only in 
the transmission of them from age to age by fallible men 
that any failure can be detected. 

Let us take an example of each for the purpose of 
showing how susceptible of rectification they become 
when tested by fair critical research. We read in the 
Hebrew text of Exodus, xii. 40, that " the sojourning 
of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 
years." If this means, as is sometimes considered, that 
it makes the duration of the sojourn in Egypt to ex- 
tend over the whole of that period (though it may be 
remarked that this reading does not support the deduction 
of "the sojourning" and "the dwelling in Egypt" being 
one and the same thing), it is evident that there must be 
some omission here, because we gather from the inspired 
history of Moses, in the book of Genesis, that only 215 
years elapsed from the time of the call of Abraham 
until the descent of the Patriarchs into Egypt, and the 
same number of years from that time unto the Exode, 
which make together the stated number of 430 years. 
Hence we find St. Paul, who, equally with Moses, wrote by 



1 Lectures at St. Andrews, 1804. 
X 



306 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



the inspiration of God, declaring that "the covenant, that 
was confirmed (at Mount Sinai) before of God in Christ, 
the law, was 430 years" 1 after the time of Abraham. And 
this interpretation, independent of the Apostle's inspiration, 
agrees with the true reading of Holy Scripture ; for not 
only does the Septuagint version, which was the authori- 
tative copy of the Old Testament used by our Lord and 
the Apostles, prove the omission in the received Hebrew 
text by reading the passage as follows — "the sojourning 
of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they 
sojourned in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt 
was 430 years;" but so likewise do all the MSS. and 
printed copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch, which is owned 
by the Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmuds, by the 
Mishna and the famous Jewish Eabbi Moses Maimonides, 
to be the original and ancient character of the Sacred 
Scriptures. We have shown in a previous Chapter 2 that this 
reading is the only one which agrees with the chronology 
of that period, as may be deduced from other portions of 
the Hebrew text. Hence we are constrained to admit that 
an omission has occurred in our present copies of the Old 
Testament. 

We find another instance of omission in the Hebrew 
text of the 145th Psalm. This, as being the last of 
the acrostic Psalms, should contain twenty-two verses, 
in accordance with the letters of the alphabet. The one 
wanting in our present copies should be between vv. 13 
and 14, beginning with the letter 1 The LXX., Syriac, 
Vulgate, and other versions, besides one Hebrew MSS. be- 
longing to Trinity College, Dublin, have the omitted verse, 
which reads thus, "Jehovah is faithful in all His words; 
and merciful in all His works." 

So we have an instance of interpolation in 1 Kings, 
vi. 1, where the Hebrew text reads, " It came to pass 



1 Galatians, iii, 16, 17. 



2 See pp. 158, 159. 



INTERPOLATIONS IN SCRIPTURE. 307 

W the 480 th year after the children of Israel were come 
out of the land of Egypt, Solomon began to build the 
house of the Lord. 1 ' That the number of years here men- 
tioned, from the time of the Exode to that of the Temple, 
is an interpolation, may be very easily proved, because it 
contradicts the chronology of that period as set forth 
both in the Old and New Testament. By comparing the 
statements in the historical books of the one with St. Paul's 
speech to the elders of Antioch recorded in the other, 
it is quite certain that a longer interval elapsed from the 
Exode to the Temple than the present copies of the 
Hebrew text allow. Josephus, in the first century, and 
Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, in the second, both con- 
firm this by quoting the Syrian records, which mention 
that Solomon's Temple was built 566 years after the 
Exodus, and which, in all probability, was the exact num- 
ber, from the fact of Hiram, King of Tyre, having mainly 
assisted in its building. If anything further were required 
to show that this passage contains an interpolation, it may 
be seen in the learned Origen's quotation of the text, who 
cites it in his commentary on St. John's Gospel as follows : 
" They prepared stones and timber three years : and in 
the fourth year, in the second month of Solomon's reign 
over Israel," &c, omitting all mention of the subsequently 
interpolated words " in the 480th year." And it is to be 
observed that in the parallel place of the Book of Chro- 
nicles, where the building of the Temple is mentioned, this 
date does not occur, though in all other places, wherever 
the years are mentioned in the Books of Samuel and 
Kings, and the same transactions are related in the Chro- 
nicles, we find the numbers set down in both records of 
what may be termed the annals of Israel. Hence we 
must conclude that the sentence, " in the 480th year after 
the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt," 
is an interpolation of the present Hebrew text, introduced 

x 2 



308 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



subsequent to the time of Origen, who wrote his commen- 
tary about the year a.d. 230. 

Further, as we find instances of omission and interpo- 
lation in the sacred text affecting chronology, and therefore 
history r , so may we quote a case of clerical error affecting 
doctrine, but which, upon investigation, may be as easily 
explained as those to which we have already referred. 
In Eevelation, xxii. 14, the present text reads, "Blessed 
are they that do His commandments, that they may have 
right to the tree of life," &c, a reading somewhat diffi- 
cult to explain, as it appears to make our "right to the 
tree of life " dependent upon something we can " do," or 
some merit of our own, and therefore contradictory of 
the emphatic teaching of our Lord in reply to the question 
put to Him, " What shall we clo, that we might work the 
works of God ? Jesus answered and said unto them, 
This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom 
He hath sent." 1 How touchingly this great doctrinal 
verity has been illustrated by one of the Church of 
England's chiefest worthies, whom all parties so justly 
revere, let the affecting testimony of our admirable 
Hooker on his death-bed decide. After a life full of 
" good works " in the service of His master, he thus gave 
utterance to the feelings of his heart respecting the ab- 
sence of all human merit in reference to salvation. 
" Though by the grace of God I have loved Him in my 
youth, and feared Him in my age, and laboured to have a 
conscience void of offence to Him and to all men ; yet if 
Thou, Lord, be extreme to mark what I have done 
amiss, who can abide it ? And, therefore, where I have 
failed, Lord, show mercy to me : for I plead not my 
righteousness, but the forgiveness of my unrighteous- 
ness for His merits who died to purchase pardon for 
penitent sinners." The passage, however, to which we 



1 St. John, vi. 28, 29. 



ERRORS IN MSS. 



309 



are referring is susceptible of easy explanation when we 
learn the true reading, and the way by which the error of 
a copyist very naturally crept in. The most ancient MSS., 
e.g. our Codex Alexandrinus in the British Museum, 
— read the passage " Blessed are they who have washed 
their robes, that they might have a right to the tree of 
life," &c, a reading which commends itself to our reason- 
ing faculties as the true text, because it is in accordance 
with the grand fundamental doctrine of the Christian 
religion, that we are " saved by grace through faith; and 
that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : not of works, 
lest any man should boast." 1 If we compare the two 
readings as they appear in ancient MSS. which have been 
handed down to us, we can readily understand how the 
mistake of the copyist arose, and how a very moderate 
amount of biblical research enables us to rectify the 
passage in dispute. 

1. Older MS. fiaKapiOLOiTrXvt'ovriQraQffToXaQavrijjyii'aea-Tairje^ovfTia, &c. 

2. Later MS. fiaKapiotOL7roLOvvreQrag£i'To\agavTovivae(TTaLr)s^ov(na, &c. 

Thus then the charge against the Holy Scriptures, which 
the language of Dr. Temple seems to imply, may be 
rejected as incorrect in every point of view, whether of 
doctrine, history, or science. What we venture to think 
is required is patient investigation, fair biblical criticism, 
and a competent knowledge of independent, and, there- 
fore, unexceptionable authorities, to enable us to decide, 
first, what really is Scripture, and then will it be to us, as 
everything inspired by God necessarily must be, the in- 
fallible standard of divine truth. And surely it behoves 
us in all things to test the value of a writing of less 
authority by the greater, not the reverse, as the Essayists 
appear generally inclined to do. Between the sacred 
writings and all human authorities a wide interval neces- 



Ephesians, ii. 8, 9. 
x 3 



310 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



sarily exists. And it is deplorable to witness how readily, 
but most unreasonably, a school of theological critics, 
who have arisen in our clay, seem desirous, not merely of 
setting aside the value of the Sacred Scriptures on matters 
of history and fact, but of exalting human testimony, how- 
ever confused and contradictory, and therefore worthy 
of no regard, above the word of God itself. 

§ 2. Having thus examined the opinions put forth by 
some of the Essayists with regard to Holy Scripture, and 
the various subjects connected with it, we must notice 
the view entertained by one of their number respecting 
the religious faith of that favourite race to whom God 
first confided, and for a long period confined, the Eevela- 
tion of Himself. " The conviction of the unity and 
spirituality of God," says Dr. Temple, " was peculiar to 
the Jews among the pioneers of civilisation. Greek 
philosophers had, no doubt, come to the same conclusion 
by dint of reason. To every Jew, without exception, 
monotheism was equally natural." 1 If this is meant to 
teach that the Jews, with a revelation from on high, de- 
nied the plurality of the persons in the Godhead, which, 
from the allusion to the natural religion of the Greek 
philosophers, we conclude must be the meaning of the 
Essayist, we must take leave to notice the fatal mistake 
embodied in the statement above. It is undoubtedly 
true that there were some amongst the learned heathen 
who appear to have had sufficient glimpses of the truth 



1 Essays and Eeviews, p. 11. We have an instance of an eminent 
Latin philosopher, who apparently came to a different conclusion " by 
dint of reason," though he admitted the spiritual nature of the Jewish 
religion. " The Jews," says Tacitus, " acknowledge but one God, and 
that God a Spirit. . . . Some affirm that they worship Bacchus ; but 
their institutions are very different. Bacchus invented luxurious rites, 
and a voluptuous religion ; while that of the Jews may be said to be 
as sordid as it is absurd." . — Hist. lib. v. § 5. 



HEATHEN SEARCH AFTER GOD. 



311 



to cause their dedication of an altar " To the Unknown 
God," as St. Paul found at Atliens, and which constrained 
the great Apostle of the Gentiles to preach, " Whom ye 
ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." 1 The 
Grecian name EI, " Thou art," inscribed on the temple of 
Apollo at Delphi, and supposed to be taken from the 
Saite inscription, " I am," on a much older temple in 
Egypt, dedicated to the goddess Neith, corresponding with 
Exodus, hi. 14, and meaning "unchangeable ;" the won- 
derful hymn to the Creator, composed by Eupolis, one of 
Socrates's pupils, more than four centuries ere Christ ap- 
peared — 

il Thee will I sing, O Father Jove, 
And teach the world to praise, and love. . . , 
And yet a greater hero far 
(Unless great Socrates could err) 
Shall rise to bless some future day, 
And teach to live and teach to pray — " 

sufficiently prove the length to which the Grecian phi- 
losophers were enabled to attain in the right direction, 
according to the Divine appointment, " that they should 
seek the Lord if haply they might feel after Him, and find 
Him, though He be not far from every one of us ; " 2 but 
it is not correct to assume that the Jews were mono- 
theists, in the sense of denying the plurality of the persons 
in the Godhead, according to the fundamental doctrine 
of the Christian religion. 

All admit that the Old and New Testaments teach one 
and the same truth, whether it be worded as in the 
former, " Hear, Israel ! the Lord our God is one 
Lord ; " 3 or, as in the latter, " God is a Spirit, and they 
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in 
truth." 4 In perfect harmony one with the other they 



1 Acts, xvii. 23. 
3 Dent. vi. 4. 



2 Acts, xvii. 27. 
4 St. John, iv. 24. 

x 4 



312 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



teach alike that the unity of the Godhead subsists in 
three distinct persons. The very first declaration in 
Holy Scripture shows this beyond all doubt. " In the 
beginning God created the heaven and the earth ; " for 
the very fact of the plural form D*nSft l governing the 
singular verb distinctly implies a plurality of persons 
in the Divine nature. And that it was so understood by 
the Jews let the following testify : " Come and see," says 
an eminent Eabbin, " the mystery of the word Elohim ; 
there are three degrees, and each degree by itself alone, 
and yet notwithstanding they are all one, and joined 
together in one, and are not divided from each other." 2 
So in Isaiah, xlviii. 16, 17, the doctrine of the Trinity 
appears to be clearly asserted, and so received by the 
Jews : " Come ye near unto me, hear ye this ; I have 
not spoken in secret from the beginning ; from the time 
that it was, there am I : and now the Lord God, and His 
Spirit, hath sent me. Thus saith the Lord, thy Eedeemer, 
the Holy One of Israel ; I am the Lord thy God which 
teach eth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way 
that thou shouldest go." Hence the cabalists, speaking 
of Jehovah, call " the first person Ain Soph, or infinite, 
who is The Fathek ; the second person Chochma, or 
Wisdom ; the third person Beena, or Understanding, 
and also Rooch Eakodesh, or The Holt Spieit." Hence 
in the Book Zohar, written while the temple was still 
standing, a work held in the highest veneration by the 
people, we find the following, which speaks for itself : 
44 There are three lights in God; the ancient light or 
Kadmon ; the pure light or Zach ; the purified light or 



1 That the word DM^N is of plural number may be proved from 
its being united upwards of thirty times in various parts of the Old 
Testament with adjectives, verbs, and pronouns plural. 

2 Simeon Ben Joachi, Comm. in Levit. § vi. 



THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 313 

Mezuchzach, and these three make but one God." So in 
the Targum of Onkelos we find repeated references to the 
second person of the Trinity, under the name of the 
Dvar or The Word. On Exod. xiv. 31, the learned 
Jew says, " It is the Word, in whom Israel believed as 
well as in Moses." On Exod. xv. 2, " It is the Word 
that redeemed Israel out of Egypt." On Exod. xxx. 6, 
" It is the Word whose presence is promised in the 
Tabernacle." Finally, in the Jerusalem Targum, supposed 
to be written during the Babylonish captivity, we read 
the author's comment on Exod. xxxiii. 9 — 11, " The 
Word of the Lord hath appeared on three remarkable 
occasions : first, at the creation of the world ; secondly, 
to Abraham ; thirdly, at Israel's departure out of Egypt ; 
and a fourth time he shall appear in the person of the 
Messiah." And on Genesis, iii. 22, the same commentator 
has these remarkable words : " Jehovah said, Here Adam, 
whom I have created, is the only begotten son in the 
world, as lam the only begotten Son in the high heavens." 
These Jewish testimonies make us reasonably conclude 
that the spiritually taught portion of God's favoured 
people were not monotheist in the same sense as the en- 
lightened heathen, or as denying the fundamental doctrine 
of all true religion, viz., that of the Trinity. 

Dr. Temple accounts for the miraculous preservation of 
God's chosen people through 4000 years of marvellous suc- 
cess and unexampled oppression,' according to the Divine 
predictions, repeated over and over again in Scripture, upon 
the argument that their " extraordinary toughness of nature 
enabled them to outlive Egyptian Pharaohs, and Assyrian 
kings, and Eoman Caesars, and Mussulman caliphs" 
(p. 14). Now we appeal to any reasonable being if this 
be not the deduction of a sceptic rather than that of a 
Christian minister, who recognises the supremacy of God's 
word, whether delivered in a way of doctrine, prophecy, 



314 



EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



or history ? Who can read the affecting account of their 
predicted sufferings foretold by Moses centuries before 
the nation existed, which God destined to be the instru- 
ment of punishing His rebellious people, and compare it 
with what secular history relates of its terrible accom- 
plishment in every part of Christendom where they have 
been scattered, together with their present condition and 
their glorious future, as is so repeatedly asserted by the 
prophets in the Old Testament, and say it is " the extraor- 
dinary toughness of their nature " which has preserved 
them, while other nations 44 greater and mightier than 
they" have risen, flourished, passed away and are remem- 
bered no more at all ? Where are the mighty nations of 
Egypt and Philistia, of Assyria and Babylon, of Greece 
and Eome % Gone, never to return. And the Jews are 
everywhere now, and if we are to understand Scripture 
in the plain meaning of language, they will in due time 
be restored to the land which God gave to Abraham and 
his seed 44 as an everlasting possession," with more than 
their former glory. 

Does then the fulfilment of what was predicted by 
Moses respecting their rejection and their sufferings war- 
rant us to believe literally what the later prophets have 
foretold concerning then 1 restoration? Let us see. In 
the 28th chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, written 
dining the sixteenth century, B.C., we read : 44 It shall come 
to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord 
thy God, that all these curses shall come upon thee and 
overtake thee. Thou shalt be removed into all the kino- 

o 

doms of the earth. The Lord shall smite thee with 
madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart. Thou 
shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore. Thou 
shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, 
among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. The 
stranger that is within thee shall get above thee very 



THE PREDICTED SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS. 315 

high, and thou shalt come down very low. He shall be 
the head and thou shalt be the tail. The Lord shall 
bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the 
earth, as swift as the eagle flieth ; and he shall besiege 
thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls 
come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy 
land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. Thou 
shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy 
sons and daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given 
thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine 
enemies shall distress thee. The Lord will make thy 
plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great 
plagues, and of long continuance. As the Lord rejoiced 
over you to do you good, and to multiply you ; so the 
Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring 
you to nought : and ye shall be plucked from off the 
land whither thou goest to possess it. And the Lord 
shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of 
the earth even unto the other ; and there thou shalt serve 
other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have 
known, even wood and stone. And among these nations 
shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot- 
have rest ; but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling 
heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind : and 
thy life shall hang in doubt before thee ; and thou shall 
fear day and night, and shall have none assurance of thy 
life." 

Does history verify the fulfilment of these predictions, 
which foretold the sufferings of the Jews when scattered 
throughout the earth P We have only time to notice a 
few of the many testimonies which bear ample truth to 
the correctness of the prophecy. It is universally admitted 
that the nation from the end of the earth, as swift as the 
flying eagle, w r hom Moses predicted as the appointed 
instrument for executing the Divine wrath upon the 



316 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



children of Israel, can refer to none other than the 
Eoman people, whom one of their historians describe as 
having " eyes which seemed to be on fire, their counte- 
nances wild and their looks furious." 1 When the time 
had arrived for the accomplishment of the prophecy, in 
the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, where it is computed 
from the testimony of Josephus that as many as 1,337,490 
perished, and where the horrible occurrence took place 
of Mary, the daughter of Eleazar, " eminent for her 
family and wealth," being forced by hunger to feast upon 
the body of her sucking child, the Jewish historian was 
compelled to make this memorable admission : " All the 
calamities which have ever happened to any nation, from 
the beginning of the world, are not to be compared to 
those which then befel the Jews." 2 In the following cen- 
tury, when they recovered sufficient strength to raise a 
rebellion against the Eoman Emperor Hadrian, it was 
only to be if possible more tormented and more destroyed, 
as Dion Cassius 3 , who lived not long after, relates. In 
the fourth century, Chrysostom, in his oration against 
the Jews 4 , says : " They again rebelled in the time of 
Constantine ; who, causing their ears to be cropped off, 
dispersed them as vile fugitives and vagabonds in various 
countries, where they carried this mark of infamy along 
with them, that all might be instructed to make no more 
such attempts." In the beginning of the 11th century 
they were so persecuted and afflicted through Europe, 
that, as one of their own historians mournfully confesses, 
" They knew not what they should do, or which way 
they should turn themselves." And David Ganz, another 
of their chroniclers, speaking of the crusades, says, " The 
Jews felt it a most calamitous time, being robbed and 



1 Livy, lib. vii. 33. 
3 Hist. lib. lxix. 



2 Preface to the Jewish War, § 4. 
4 Tom. vi. ed. Savile, p. 383. 



THE SUFFERINGS OF THE JEWS. 317 

pillaged and killed by the Christian soldiers as they 
marched along." Gibbon, speaking of the same period, 
observes : " At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, Spires, Worms, 
many thousands of that unhappy people were pillaged 
and massacred ; nor had they felt a more bloody stroke 
since the persecution of Hadrian." 1 Their sufferings at 
that time so much moved the great St. Bernard, that he 
wrote to the clergy and people not to persecute them. 
" For they are," says he, " dispersed into all lands, that 
while they suffer the just punishment of their horrid 
wickedness, they may be witnesses of our redemption." 
They were so persecuted in the twelfth century, that Eabbi 
Zacut complains of no less than ten grievous persecutions 
in his own age, to abolish the very name of the Jews 
out of the world. The historian Hallam, when relating 
the sufferings of the Jews during the middle ages, says : 
" They were everywhere the objects of popular insult 
and oppression, frequently of a general massacre. A 
time of festivity to others was often the season of mockery 
and persecution to them. It was the custom at Toulouse 
to smite them on the face every Easter. At Beziers they 
were attacked with stones from Palm Sunday to Easter, 
an anniversary of insult and cruelty generally productive 
of bloodshed, to which the populace were regularly insti- 
gated by a . sermon from the bishop. It is almost in- 
credible to what a length extortion of money was 
carried." 2 Sir Walter Scott, in one of his historical 
romances, describes the Jews " as a race which, during 
those dark ages, was alike detested by the credulous and 
prejudiced vulgar, and persecuted by the greedy and 
rapacious nobility. Except, perhaps, the flying fish, 
there was no race existing on the earth, in the air, or on 
the waters, who were the objects of such an unremitting 



1 Decline and Fall, eh. Iviii. 2 Middle Ages, vol. i. pp. 233-4. 



318 



EEVELATIOX ATs T D SCIENCE. 



and relentless persecution as the Jews at this period. It 
is a well-known story of King John, that he confined a 
wealthy Jew in one of the royal castles, and daily caused 
one of his teeth to be torn out, until, when the jaw of 
the unhappy Israelite was half disfurnished, he consented 
to pay a large sum, which it was the tyrant's object to 
extort from him." 1 Truly it may be said of them, as 
one of their most distinguished historians has observed : 
" Kings have often employed the severity of their edicts, 
and the hands of the executioner, to destroy them : the se- 
ditious multitude has performed massacres and executions, 
infinitely more tragical than the princes. Both kings and 
people, heathens, Christians, and Mahometans, who are op- 
posite in so many things, have united in the design of ruin- 
ing this nation, and have not been able to effect it. The 
Bush of Moses, surrounded with flames, has always burnt 
without consuming. The Jews have been driven from all 
parts of the world, which has only served to disperse them 
in all parts of the universe. They have, from age to age, 
run through misery and persecution, and torrents of their 
own blood." 2 

Thus then the present condition of the Jews, so 
far from being traced to then" unusual and " extraor- 
dinary toughness" as Dr. Temple considers, is the most 
remarkable testimony to the truth of God's word ; and 
their wonderful preservation amidst the entire disappear- 
ance of other nations contemporaneous with their own 
when David flourished, amidst the ravages of war, the 
wear of time, and the ceaseless hostility of the Gen- 
tiles, affords us ample assurance that, though they have 
been, as was predicted, " a byword among all nations," 
they shall, as Isaiah has foretold, at a time probably not 
far distant, " build the old wastes, raise up the former 



1 Ivaixboe, vol. i. p. 83. 



2 Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, xi. 1. 



THE rEESEETATIOX OF THE JEWS. 



319 



desolations, and repair the waste cities, the desolations 
of many generations. In their land they shall possess 
the double. And their seed shall be known among the 
Gentiles, and their offspring among the people : all that 
see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed 
which the Lord hath blessed." 1 The Jews then, we may 
safely assert, banished and dispersed as they still are 
throughout the world, bear testimony to the truth of 
the religion of Christ. Preserved, not by their toughness 
of shin, but by a continued miracle, that they may keep 
the succession of those who shall one day acknowledge 
Him whom their fathers pierced and slew, they bear 
witness to Him unceasingly. Had they been only 
punished, they would have proved no more than His 
justice ; had they been only preserved, they would have 
proved nothing more than His power ; had they not been 
reserved in order to acknowledge Christ as the true 
Messiah in the land which God promised to the seed of 
Abraham as " an everlasting possession," they could not 
have proved His mercy and veracity, nor have made 
Hhn any reparation for their tremendous crime. Their 
dispersion proves that He is come, but they have rejected 
Him ; while their preservation shows that He hath not 
cast them off for ever ; but that, as God has said by the 
mouth of one of His servants, " Behold, at that time I 
will undo all that afflict thee : and I will get them praise 
in every land where they have been put to shame. At that 
time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather 
you : for 1 will make you a name and a praise among all 
the people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity 
before your eyes, saith the Lord." 

§ 3. If Dr. Temple's opinion- respecting Judaism be 
erroneous, an examination of what he has put forth with 



1 Isaiah, lxi. 4, 7, 9. 



Zeplianiah, iii. 19 ? 20, 



320 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



reference to Romanism induces a similar conclusion. 
" That which religion," he observes, " was to the Jew, 
law was to the Soman. And law was the lesson which 
Borne was intended to teach the world. Hence, the 
Bishop of Borne soon became the head of the Church. 
Borne was, in fact, the centre of the traditions which had 
once governed the world ; and their spirit still remained ; 
and the Boman Church developed into the Papacy, 
simply because a head was wanted, and no better one 
could be found. Hence, again, in all the doctrinal 
disputes of the fourth and fifth centuries, the decisive 
voice came from Borne. Every controversy was finally 
settled by her opinion." 1 Again, he states : " The Papacy 
of the middle ages, and the Papal hierarchy, with all its 
numberless ceremonies and appliances of external reli- 
gion ; with its attention fixed upon deeds and not upon 
thoughts, or feelings, or purposes ; with its precise ap- 
portionment of punishments and purgatory, was, in fact, 
neither more nor less than the old schoolmaster come 
back to bring some new scholars to Christ " (p. 42). 
Surely this is strange language for a Protestant ; much 
more for a minister of the fairest branch of Christ's 
Holy Catholic Church in Christendom, whose unceasing 
adherence to all real Catholic truth, during the eighteen 
centuries of her existence 2 , is the best protest against the 
novelties, heresies, and attempted usurpation of our fallen 
and apostate sister, the Church of Borne. That she 
deserves the title of a new church, teaching a new faith, 



1 Essays and Keviews, p. 16. 

2 It is interesting to remember in this present year of grace, a.d. 
1861, that the 18th century of our Church's existence is completed, 
Christianity having been introduced according to the testimony of 
Gildas, our most ancient authority on the subject, just before the revolt 
of Boadicea, a.d. 61, as we have endeavoured to prove in another work, 
written with the object of showing the Pauline origin of the Church of 
England. 



HERESY OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 



321 



and patting fortli new pretensions, in contradistinction to 
that bright period of her history, when her " faith was 
spoken of throughout the whole world," 1 may be seen in 
the fact, that the definition of her present belief and 
teaching, in what is commonly known as " the Creed of 
Pope Pius IV.," is not quite three centuries old, having 
been ratified as late as December, a.d. 1564. It is 
scarcely necessary to observe, that, by this suicidal act, 
in defiance of the positive prohibition of the ancient 
Catholic Church, as expressed in the seventh canon of 
the Council of Ephesus 2 , she has branded herself as being 
novel, heretical, and apostate. Her heresy was very clear, 
when Liberius Bishop of Eome, in the fourth century, be- 
came an Arian, though her attempted usurpation cannot 
be said to have commenced before the beginning of the 
seventh century, when the Emperor Phocas, that imperial 
Eobespierre, granted the title of " Universalis Sacerdos " 
to Pope Boniface III., a.d. 607, which title has never 
been recognised for one day by the Eastern Church, 
which then formed the largest portion of Christendom. 
In our own country this usurpation cannot be said to 
have been attempted for a longer period than the interval 
between the reign of the miserable King John until the 
glorious Eeformation, and even then with only limited 
success, as there are many instances, during the reign of 
the great house of Plantagenet, of. resistance to the anti- 
Catholic and anti-Christian claims of the Bishop of Eome. 
We think, therefore, that Dr. Temple is mistaken in the 



1 Rom. i. 8. 

2 The Council of Ephesus, a.d. 431, decreed that, " Whoever shall 
dare to compose any other creed beside that which was settled by th<i 
Holy Fathers who were assembled in the city of Nicaea with the Holy 
Ghost . . . they shall be deposed, the bishops from their episcopal 
office, and clergymen from the clergy." See Hammond's Definitions of 
Faith, fyc ; Cone. Eph. canon vii. 



322 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



way in which he has spoken of Eonie, whether secular or 
ecclesiastical. 

Let us consider his statements separately. He ob- 
serves : "Law was the lesson which Eome was intended 
to teach the world. Hence, the Bishop of Borne soon be- 
came the Head of the Church." The more we analyse this 
reasoning the more we are struck by the fallacy of the 
author's logic. Admitted that the Eoman people, before 
the Christian era, proved by their conduct their reverence 
for law and order, history as well as prophecy shows that 
the Bishop of Eome made no claim to that succession. 
Their only succession, in respect to " law," was what they 
adopted from the Eoman Emperors, whose grand prin- 
ciple was " legibus solutus," which expression, as Gibbon 
truly observes, " was supposed to exalt the Emperor above 
all human restraints, and to leave his conscience and 
reason as the sacred measure of his conduct." 1 Hence 
we find the Bishops of Eome decreeing as follows : " We, 
according to the plenitude of our power, have a right to 
dispense above law 2 or right," said one. 3 " The Eope 
may dispense above the law, and of wrong make right, by 
correcting and changing the laws," taught another. 4 " The 
Eope is exempted from all law of man" was the declara- 
tion of a third. 5 These claims rested, as Archbishop 
Ferraris, a great authority, affirms, upon the ground, that 
the Eope can modify the Divine law, since his power is 

1 Decline and Fall, viii. 17. 

2 Platina, the eminent Eoman Catholic historian, relates concerning 
one of the Bishops of Eome, that " he (Benedict IX.) appeared to a 
person after his death in the form of a bear and with the tail of an ass ; 
saying, ' Because I lived like a beast, without either law or reason, there- 
fore, at the command of God and St. Peter, whose seat I have defiled, I 
resemble now a beast rather than a man." 

3 Pope Innocent III. Decret. Greg. b. iii. t. viii. ch. iv. 

4 Decret. Greg. XI. De Transl. Ep. Tit. vii. Gloss., in c. 3, col. 217. 

5 Boniface VIII. in Corp. Jur. Can. 



BISHOP OF ROME ABOVE LAW. 



323 



not of man, but of God, and lie supplies the place of God 
upon earth, with ample power of binding and loosing." 1 

Now all these things which history records respecting the 
past, prophecy, written, as all admit, centuries before the 
rise of the Eoman Papacy to supreme power, relates as to 
what was then future. For do we not find St. Paul ex- 
pressly affirming, in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, 
that, previous to the next coming" of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
" the apostasy " would be developed, the prominent signs 
and characteristic marks of which, as a guide to the 
faithful in its application, were, that he should have the title 
of " the Man of Sin," — that he should exercise supreme 
authority in the Church of God, far above all temporal 
powers, and that he should be emphatically o avo^og, as 
claiming to be above all human laws, — whose fall would be 
finally accomplished at the Lord's appearing ? But Dr. 
Temple and his co-Essayists (Professor Jowett has written 
upon the Thessalonians, we believe, in an opposite sense) 
will probably reply : " We do not admit there is any refer- 
ence to the Church or Bishop of Eome in that prophecy." 
We can understand such reasoning on the part of Eoman- 
ists, or of those nominal Protestants (in the widest sense 
of the term) whose apparent object or necessary result of 
their logic must be to whitewash Eome from those mina- 
tory charges which Scripture brings against her, if 
language has any definite meaning whatever ; but it is 
impossible to concede such a right to any minister of the 
United Church of England and Ireland, one portion of 
which has once authoritatively declared, that " The Bishop 
of Eome is so farre from being the supreame head of the 
vniversall Church of Christ, that his workes and doctrine 
doe plainely discover him to bee that Man of Sinne, fore- 
told in the holy Scriptures, whome the Lord shall consume 



1 Ferraris, Bibl. Prompt, in Verb. Dispen. § 20. 
y 2 



324 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



with the spirit of his mouth, and abolish with the brightness 
of His comming" 1 We abstain from expressing any pri- 
vate opinion upon this article, but we quote it in order 
to show the teaching of one of the branches of the 
Catholic Church, on a doctrine concerning which there 
is so much error afloat in general, and from which the 
Essayist has drawn such a mistaken inference in par- 
ticular. 

Dr. Temple continues : " The Eoman Church developed 
into the papacy simply because a head was wanted, and 
no better could be found. Hence, again, in all the doc- 
trinal disputes of the fourth and fifth centuries the decisive 
voice came from Eome." Unable to reconcile the infer- 
ence of the Essayist, that " a head was wanted," with 
such passages in Scripture as these, " Call no man your 
father upon the earth ; for One is your Father, which is in 
heaven. Neither be ye called masters ; for One is your 
Master, even Christ" (St. Matt, xxiii. 9, 10) ; or " Christ 
is the head of the body, the Church " (Col. i. 18) ; and 
believing that the only headship to which the Church of 
Eome has ever had any claim, is that of " the apostasy " 
(Justin Martyr 2 emphatically expressed it " the man of 
the apostasy "), founded upon his assumption of the title 
of " Universalis Sacerdos," 3 as we have before noticed, it 



1 Art. 80. Articles of Religion agreed upon by the Archbishops 
and Bishops and the rest of the Cleargie of Ireland in the Convocation 
holden at Dublin in the yeare of our Lord God, 1615. 

2 Dial, cum Trypho. § ex. 

3 It is curious to reflect that, when the Patriarch of Constantinople 
took the same objectionable title, which he did a few years before it 
was claimed by the Pope, Gregory the Great, then Bishop of Eome 
was so scandalised at the act, that he wrote, " I confidently affirm that 
whoever calls himself Universalis Sacerdos, or desires to be so called 
in his pride, is the forerunner of Antichrist, because in his pride he 
prefers himself to the rest. And he is led into error by a similar 
pride : for as that wicked one wishes to appear a god above all men, so 



THE VOICE FROM ROME. 



325 



is necessary to call attention to the mistake which. Dr. 
Temple has made in supposing, that in all the doctrinal 
disputes of the fourth and fifth centuries, the " decisive 
voice came from Eome." 

The great event of the fourth century, after the adop- 
tion of the Christian religion by the Eoman state, was 
unquestionably the struggle between Athanasius and the 
Arians ; and the 44 decisive voice " came virtually from 
Alexandria and not from Eome, as we may gather from 
the Catholic Church having expressed herself for so many 
centuries respecting the all-important doctrine of the 
Trinity in the magnificent language of that Creed, which 
bears the name of Athanasius : whereas the then Bishop 
of Eome went over to the enemy, turned Arian, and 
branded himself, and the Church of which he was the 
first minister for the time being, with the fatal charge of 
heresy, writing with the accustomed hauteur of the oc- 
cupant of the Eoman see, 44 Athanasius, who was Bishop 
of the Church at Alexandria, was condemned by me 
before I sent the letters of the Eastern Bishops to the 
Court of the Sacred Emperor, and that he was separated 
from the communion of the Eoman Church, as the whole 
Presbytery of the Eoman Church is witness." 1 

The prominent events of the fifth . century were the 



whatsoever he is who alone desires to be called a Bishop, extols him- 
self above all other Bishops." — Ep. xxxiii. ad Maur. Aug. 1. vii. In- 
dict. 15. Gregory Nazianzen, three centuries before the time of Gregory 
the Great, denned the term " Universalis" on this wise: " That in 
being made Bishop of Alexandria he was made Bishop of the whole 
world?" 1 — Ep. lxix. torn. iii. Ben. ed. p. 161, 

1 Epistle of Liberius, Bishop of Eome to Ursacius, in Hilar. Fragm. 
vi. 6. The conduct of Liberius elicited from Hilary the following 
very just rebuke : " This is Arian faithlessness .... Anathema ! I 
say to thee, Liberius, and thy associates .... a third time, Anathema ! 
to thee, prevaricator, Liberius." 

t 3 



326 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Councils of Ephesus, a.d. 431, and of Chalcedon, a.d. 
451, both held in Asia, where the voice of Eome had 
never been recognised as of authority over the whole 
Church ; and the most notable acts of those councils 
is seen in both of them having prohibited, under the 
severest penalties, any other creed than the one ori- 
ginally set forth, in the preceding century, by the 
Council of Nicaea. Their decrees affirm, that " It shall 
not be lawful for any one to bring forward, or to write, 
or compose, or teach any other creed, and that they 
who deliver any other creed to those who are de- 
sirous of turning to the acknowledgment of the truth, 
shall be anathematised." 1 Had the decisive voice come 
from Eome, at that period of the Church's history, she 
would not have stultified herself by her suicidal act in the 
sixteenth, when she did dare to compose another creed, 
and has thereby inherited the anathema of the Catholic 
Church of the fifth century. 

Dr. Temple farther affirms, that " The Papacy of the 
Middle Ages, and the Papal hierarchy, was, in fact, neither 
more nor less than the old schoolmaster come back to bring 
some new scholars to Christ." If this has any reference 
to the beautiful metaphor of St. Paul in Galatians iii. 24, 
where he describes the effect and meaning of the Mosaic 
dispensation, that " The law was our schoolmaster to 
bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith," 
it is singularly inapplicable. For though, in the passage 
above, the word is translated " schoolmaster," we all 
know, from its derivation, that it rather meant the peda- 
gogue, or servant who had the care of children, to lead 
them to and fro from school, than the teacher in the 
school itself. Even so the Mosaic law did not, like the 
Gospel, teach saving knowledge, but only, as it were, 



1 The Definition of Faith agreed upon at the Council of Chalcedon. 
Act, 5. 



THE PAPAL CHURCH OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 327 

gave some hints of the Gospel scheme, and the way of 
salvation, which was not then fully revealed. By types 
and figures, by rites and ceremonies, by shadows and 
sacrifices, it led the Jews to see the pollution of their 
nature, and their need of blood for the remission of sin ; 
by circumcision, the internal rending of the heart; by the 
passover, the daily sacrifice, and other offerings, the doc- 
trines of redemption, satisfaction, and atonement ; by the 
brazen serpent, the necessity of looking to Christ for 
salvation ; and, above all, by the conduct of their great 
ancestor, Abraham, to learn that belief such as he dis- 
played, and unswerving faith in the hour of trial, was the 
only mode by which a perfectly righteous God could, 
consistent with His justice, accept and pardon unrigh- 
teous and unholy man ; in other words, the fundamental 
doctrine of justification by faith. 

It is in this especially that the great difference between 
the teaching of our own Church and that of the Church 
of Borne consists. We, as a faithful branch of the 
Catholic branch, teach salvation one way, the Papal 
hierarchy of the Middle Ages taught, as the Church of 
Borne now teaches it, another. And how little " the 
Papal hierarchy of the Middle Ages " was competent to 
act the schoolmaster, and to bring some new scholars to 
Christ, let the following description of it, by Boman 
Catholic historians, testify : " Fifty popes," says Genebard, 
" in one hundred and fifty years, from John VIII. till 
Leo IX., entirely degenerated from the sanctity of their 
ancestors, and were apostatical rather than apostolical." 
" Many shocking monsters," writes Cardinal Baronius re- 
specting the tenth century, " intruded into the pontifical 
chair who were guilty of robbery, assassination, simony, 
dissipation, tyranny, sacrilege, perjury, and all kinds of 
miscreancy. Candidates, destitute of every requisite quali- 
fication, were promoted to the Papal chair ; while all the 

Y 4 



328 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



canons and traditions of antiquity were condemned and out- 
raged." Nicholaus de Clemangis, a Bomish archdeacon, 
describes the state of the Church of the Middle Ages, at 
the close of the fourteenth century, by recording that 
" the cardinals had violated the celibiate vow in all man- 
ner of unclean living ; that the bishops spent their days in 
hunting and fowling, and their nights in debauchery ; that 
the regulars were drunkards and incontinent, living in 
open sin and shame ; that the monks were wanderers, and 
instead of justice, were inflated by pride ; and that the 
mendicants were ravening wolves, defiling all things by 
their flagrant vice." Vincent Ferrarius, a doctor of the- 
ology, and present at the Council of Constance, declared, 
concerning the clergy of the following century, that 
" The priests fish for honours, but they seek not morals ; 
for they are ignorant, scoffers, illiterate, hypocrites, and 
simoniacs : they grow worse every day. They are volup- 
tuous, envious, corrupting the whole world. They are 
obstinate and loquacious, but they never declare God's 
truth. Christianity would rejoice if, out of a thousand, 
she found one devout person." From all of which, we 
should rather conclude with John Kobitzana, Archbishop 
of Prague in the fifteenth century, that "the Papal 
hierarchy " were so intolerably vicious as to have proved 
their claim to the title under which he describes the 
Church of Eome, as " Western Babylon, and the Pope 
Antichrist, who has overwhelmed the worship of God 
with a heap of superstitions," rather than the strange de- 
duction which an English presbyter of the nineteenth cen- 
tury has drawn, that it was " neither more nor less than 
the old schoolmaster come back to bring some new 
scholars to Christ." 

Nor has the Church of Eome become more quali- 
fied for teaching the world in this present day than 
she was in the Middle Ages, if we accept the testimony 



DK. NEWMAN ON THE CHURCH OF ROME. 329 

of one whose other writings at the time, and sub- 
sequent secession, prove him at least an unexception- 
able witness against that Church, which he has now 
joined. " In truth," once wrote the noted John Henry 
Newman, " the Church of Eome is a church beside her- 
self, abounding in noble gifts and rightful titles, but 
unable to use them religiously ; crafty, obstinate, wilful, 
malicious, cruel, unnatural, as madmen are. Or, rather, 
she may be said to resemble a demoniac, possessed with 
principles, thoughts, and tendencies not her own ; in out- 
ward form and natural powers what God made her, but 
ruled within by an inexorable spirit, who is sovereign 
in his management over her, and most subtle and most 
successful in the use of her gifts. Thus she is her real 
self only in name ; and till God vouchsafe to restore her, 
we must treat her as if she were that Evil One ivho 
governs her." 1 

That Dr. Newman should entertain a different opinion 
now that he has seceded from the Catholic to the Eoman 
Church is only what we might expect. One of his 
reasons in justification of the step he has taken, or rather 
in attempting to defend the Church to which he has allied 
himself from the awful charge of idolatry, of which she 
has stood convicted for so many ages, is of so curious a 
nature, that we cannot forbear noticing it. He attempts 
to demonstrate the injustice of such a charge upon the 
following ground : " It is foretold, that under the Gospel 
dispensation, 6 the idols God will utterly abolish ' (Isaiah 
ii. 18). But if under that dispensation the Eoman 
Church be idolatrous, then the idols have not been 
utterly abolished. Therefore, the Eoman Church cannot 
have been idolatrous." 2 Q. E. D. ! ! ! 



1 Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church, p. 103. 

2 See Stanley Faber's Provincial Letters, p. 222. 



330 



KEVELATIOX AND SCIENCE. 



There are others besides Dr. Newman, and of a 
very different school, who appear anxious to defend 
the Church of Borne from the fatal doom which 
awaits her, if there be any meaning in the positive 
declarations of the Apocalypse respecting her. We 
have already noticed the prevailing opinion of the 
fifteenth century amongst enlightened churchmen, as ex- 
pressed by the Archbishop of Prague, that " the Church 
of Borne was Western Babylon, and the Pope Antichrist \ 
who had overwhelmed the Church of Christ with a heap 
of superstitions." The actions as well as the teaching of 
the Church of Borne for the last four centuries, have fully 
confirmed the reasonableness of such an opinion. That 
the Church of Borne is depicted with a sufficient minute- 
ness of detail to forbid doubt, in the 17th and 18th 
chapters of Bevelation, under the title of " Babylon the 
Great," no unprejudiced person can for a moment deny. 
Yet men of entirely different schools have, by some 
unexplained system of logic, persuaded themselves that 
it bears some other meaning. E. g. one, who like Dr. 
Newman, was once a Bellow at Oxford, and who subse- 
quently seceded from the Church of England, though to 
the other extremity of the pole, having allied himself to 
the latest formed sect in Christendom, commonly known 
as " the Plymouth Brethren," has contended, as we have 
before noticed 2 , that the city prophetically described as 



1 In speaking of the Pope as Antichrist, we should be careful to 
remember, that he is only one of many Antichrists. He who is de- 
scribed in Scripture emphatically as " the Antichrist," has been denned 
by the Holy Ghost as including and embracing all the false teachers of 
a certain doctrine which have appeared since the time of the First 
Advent. u Many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not 
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is the deceiver, and the 
Antichrist." — 2 Epistle of St. John, ver. 7. 

2 See pp. 20, 21, foot-note. 



THE WESTMINSTER EEVIEW. 



331 



" the seven-hilled city" 1 and " Babylon the Great," so far 
from referring to Rome, which the Spirit of God clearly 
points to as " that great city reigning over the kings of 
the earth " when St. John lived, it must mean Babylon on 
the Euphrates, where Nebuchadnezzar once reigned ! 

If we turn to another school of prophetic interpreters, 
we find them equally at issue with the catholic and spi- 
ritual interpretation of " Babylon the Great," as belonging 
to none other than the Church of Borne. In the last 
number of the " Westminster Eeview " we have the most 
recent display of the qualifications of a rationalistic re- 
viewer, for the office of explaining and interpreting some 
of the most interesting of the most prophetic portions of 
Holy Scripture. After the usual fling at " the learned 
Dr. Cumming, and other distinguished scholars of the 
same calibre," and after sternly condemning " one of 
these mystagogues " for renewing the lease of a cottage 
for ten years, " notwithstanding his conclusion that the 
world is to come to an end in 1867," the reviewer mani- 
fests his qualifications for acting as an impartial censor 
of others on the subject of prophecy, by denying that 
the Apocalypse was written by the Apostle St. John ; by 
affirming that it was composed during the reign of Nero, 
which he considers proved by the " literal " Jerusalem 



1 In St. John's age, there was but one great city in the world built 
upon " seven mountains." The name of each of the seven hills is well 
known ; and by the great Eoman poets of antiquity, Virgil, Horace, 
Ovid, Martial, and many others, it was invariably called " the seven- 
hilled city." In the present day, a Papal poet of less note, viz. Car- 
dinal Wiseman, has adopted similar phraseology when singing the 
praises of Pio Nono : — 

u The golden roof, the marble halls, 

The Vatican's majestic walls, 

The note redouble till it fills 

With echoes sweet the seven hills, 

1 God bless our Pope, the great, the good,'' " 



332 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



being mentioned in the Eevelation ; by declaring that the 
annals of Tacitus afford authority for applying the inter- 
pretation of the first five heads of the apocalyptic beast, 
described in the 17th chapter, to Augustus and his suc- 
cessors until Nero, the popular belief of whose resur- 
rection sufficiently fulfilled what is said in Eevelation 
respecting the eighth head of " the beast that was and is 
not, and goeth into perdition ;" and by assuring us that his 
interpretation of the number of the beast, as ?j 'kctrivri 
&a<n'hs7oL, whose letters, he adds, " translated into num- 
bers, amount exactly to 666, and the spelling is rigo- 
rously correct," must be considered as an important 
discovery, and worthy the attention of "Dr. Cumming 
and his brother pundits." 1 

Further, in the review of a work entitled, " The Apo- 
calypse Fulfilled, &c. by the Eev. P. S. Desprez," in the 
same periodical, the editor considers that " Mr. Desprez 
will have rendered an immense service to the cause of a 
reasonable Christianity 2 , if his method of interpreting the 
Apocalypse should be generally accepted. He will have 
removed a serious stumblingblock from many well-inten- 
tioned persons, and have deprived clerical charlatans of 
the means of perpetuating gross imposture and deceit.'" 
And he declares that " Mr. Desprez's work deals a heavy 

1 See "Westminster Review, No. xl., Oct. 1861, pp. 451, 472, 476, 
483. 

2 As Mr. Desprez consistently maintains, that the resurrection of the 
dead and glorification of the living, foretold by St. Paul in 1 Thess. iv., 
1 Cor. xv., Phil.- iii. 20, 21, Rev. xx., and in other places, took place at 
the destruction of Jerusalem, we can appreciate the Westminster Re- 
viewer's definition of " a reasonable Christianity" though it is some- 
what difficult to understand how Mr. Desprez can swallow some 
expressions in the Creeds respecting the future resurrection of the body, 
to which he, as a clergyman of the Church of England, has given his 
assent, and which he is so frequently compelled to maintain by word of 
mouth. 



THE DATE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 



333 



blow upon the Exeter Hall fanaticism, from which it will 
not easily recover." 1 Whether Exeter Hall can hope to 
survive this terrible onslaught, we need not stop to deter- 
mine ; but it may be permitted us to point out some 
trifling inaccuracies and mistakes of the Westminster 
Reviewer, which must necessarily invalidate the sweep- 
ing condemnation which he so unsparingly bestows 
upon those who do not assent to his prophetic interpre- 
tation. 

In the first place, then, considering that Papias, Bishop 
of Hierapolis, the contemporary of St. John, received and 
used the Apocalypse 2 ; that Justin Martyr, who held his 
controversy with Trypho the Jew at Ephesus, where St. 
John had been living about thirty years before, affirms 
that the Revelation had been given to " John, one of the 
Apostles of Christ" 8 and that Irenseus, the disciple of 
Polycarp, who was himself the disciple of St. John, 
declares that " it was seen by that Apostle no very long 
time ago, but almost in our own age, towards the end of the 
reign of Domitian" * we must reject the theory, whether 
it be of Dionysius of Alexandria in the eighth century, or 
of a Westminster Reviewer in the nineteenth, which would 
ascribe the authorship to another 5 , and which antedates 



1 Westminster Review, No. xl., Oct. 1861, pp. 551, 553. 

2 Andreas, in Apoc. 

3 Dialog, cum Trypho. § lxxxi. 

4 Contr. Hser. v. 30-3. Compare the statement of Irenseus with the 
conclusion of Professor Maurice, who speaks, in his " Lectures on the 
Apocalypse," of " the absence of any evidence for the old tradition that 
the Apocalypse belongs to the time of Domitian." 

5 There is, perhaps, no book of the New Testament for which Ave 
have such clear and numerous testimonies (several besides those ad- 
duced above) as we have in favour of the Apocalypse, and immediately 
succeeding the time when it was written. That doubts should prevail 
in after ages must have originated, either in ignorance of the earlier 
testimony, or else from some rationalistic idea as to what an Apostle 



334 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



it about thirty years, in order to deny the doctrine of the 
Millennium, and to apply what is said in the Apocalypse 
respecting the heavenly temple, to the material one which 
was destroyed by the Eoman army shortly after Nero 
died. 

Considering also that the Annals of Tacitus, so far 
from affording any authority to the Westminster Ee- 
viewer for his novel application of the prophecy respect- 
ing the five fallen heads of the apocalyptic beast, to 
Augustus and his four immediate successors, do warrant, 
conjointly with the history of Livy, the ancient interpre- 
tation, that they refer to the five previous forms of 
government which had existed in Eome before the Im- 
perial, when St. John lived, since they are specified as 
kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, and tribunes \ we must 
reject this modern and unfounded theory, which seeks to 
apply the fulfilment of the predictions to the destruction 
of the temple of Jerusalem by the Eoman armies. 

Considering, moreover, that the wonderful discovery 
of the Westminster Eeviewer respecting the number 
of the beast, which by the way is not original, must 
necessarily fail, simply because Scripture declares it 
to refer to " the number of a man," 2 and not to the 



ought to have written. It is in vain, however, to argue a priori, that 
St. John could not have written this book, when we have the evidence 
of several competent authorities that he did write it. 

1 Livy, vi. 1, and Tacitus, Annal. i. 1. 

2 Apoc. xiii. 18. Many other names, besides the selection of the 
Westminster Reviewer, have been suggested for the fulfilment of this 
prophecy from the time when Ireneeus in the second century proposed a 
choice between Lateinos and Teitan, as fulfilling the required number, 
down to the period of the Eeformation, when Saxoneios was adopted 
by Cardinal Bellarmine " for the satisfaction of Luther ; " or to our own 
day, when Dr. Newman supposed he had discovered the enigma in the 
phrase " the Re formed British Parliament ;" but all these, and a mul- 
titude of other similar fancies, necessarily fail for want of agreeing with 



BABYLON THE GEEAT. 



number of a kingdom, as he fancifully suggests, we must 
decline his mode of interpreting the Apocalypse on that 
head. 

Finally, considering that the Westminster Eeviewer's 
definition of " a reasonable Christianity " depends upon 
Mr. Desprez's mode of interpreting the Apocalypse 
being the true and correct one, the chief feature of 
which is that "Babylon the Great" means Jerusalem, 
and not Borne, it may be well to point out as a justifi- 
cation for the ancient opinion, which appears to have 
been adopted in modern times by "clerical charlatans" 
and " Exeter Hall fanatics," that " the woman," or 
"scarlet lady" of the Apocalypse, as she is sometimes 
delicately termed, cannot be a symbol of Jerusalem, as 
she was never guilty of " committing fornication," i. e. 
idolatrous worship, " with the kings of the earth," or of 
making " the inhabitants of the earth drunk with the 
wine of her • whoredom," since her exclusive religious 
system forbad such unholy connection. Nor was she ever 
supported by the temporal power in the mode indicated 
in the Apocalypse, i. e. both guiding it and upheld by it ; 
nor could it be said of Jerusalem that she was ever 
" drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the 
blood of the martyrs of Jesus ;" and that if she had, it 
would have caused "wonder" and astonishment to St. 
John, when such a revelation was made to him ; nor 



the marks by which the Church should know that " the number of the 
beast " meant the number of some man's name, who would towards the 
close of this age possess dominion in the Koman empire. And it is 
somewhat curious to find that, by writing the various names of the pre- 
sent Emperor of the French in the three languages which told the 
world the death of the Saviour of Men, we have in the Latin tongue, 
Louis, i. e. Ludovicus ; in the Greek tongue, Louis Napoleon ; and in 
the Hebrew tongue, Charles Bonaparte, as the equivalents to the re- 
quired number 666. 



336 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



was Jerusalem built upon " seven mountains," as the seat 
" on which the woman sitteth " is distinctly declared to 
be ; nor could her power be ever said to have extended 
over " peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues ;" nor, 
finally, was Jerusalem " reigning over the kings of the 
earth," either at the time when St. John wrote the 
Apocalypse, or at any previous period of her history. 
Since, however, these characteristic marks, by which the 
Catholic Church was to be forewarned and forearmed, 
are completely and exclusively 1 fulfilled in Papal Rome, 
we must adhere to the ancient interpretation, the West- 
minster Eeviewer and Mr. Desprez non obstante, content 
to bear the reproach of being termed "charlatans" and 
"fanatics," by those whose " reasonable Christianity" has 
sufficiently exposed their pretensions to being considered 
faithful interpreters of the prophecies of the Book of 
Eevelation. 

If we look to the writings of another of the Essayists, 
as a true exponent of the principles of a "reasonable 
Christianity," we find a similar confusion of ideas respect- 
ing the tremendous and impassable gulf which separates 
Catholicism and Eomanism. "The recognition of the 
fact," observes Mr. Pattison, in his Essay on " The Ten- 
dencies of Eeligious Thought in England, 1688-1750," 
" that the view of the eternal verities of religion which 
prevails in any given age, is in part determined by the 
view taken in the age which preceded it, is incompatible 
with the hypothesis generally prevalent among us as to 
the mode in which we form our notions of religious truth. 
Upon none of the prevailing theories as to this mode 



1 The author has endeavoured to show this in a pamphlet entitled 
" Come out or Go out ; an Explication of Eevelation xviii. 4, according 
to the Douay Version. Addressed to our Eoman Catholic Brethren of 
Great Britain and Ireland," to which he ventures to refer those who 
may feel interested on the subject. 



WHAT IS TRUTH? 



337 



is a deductive history of theology possible. 1. The 
Catholic theory, which is really that of Eoman Catholics, 
and, professedly, that of Anglo -Catholics, withdraws 
Christianity altogether from human experience and the 
operation of the ordinary laws of thought. 2. The 
Protestant theory of free inquiry, which supposes that 
each mind asks a survey of the evidence, and strikes the 
balance of probability, according to the best of its judg- 
ment." 1 

The lamentable mistake in the foregoing passage re- 
quires notice. To affirm that the religious truth of any 
age is dependent upon the one which has preceded it, and 
to assert that the Eoman Catholics hold " the Catholic 
theory," manifests such ignorance of both the positive 
and negative sides of theology, that it is wonderful how 
the Essayist could have committed himself in the way he 
has done. Truth, whether termed religious or Catholic 
truth, for they are one and the same, is like its Author, 
unchangeable. The allowable anagram on Pilate's famous 
question, " Quid est Veritas ? " " Vir est qui adest," affords 
the briefest and yet most perfect reply. Christ Himself is 
emphatically the truth, true God as well as true man. 
His gospel comes from the God of truth, and lies in the 
Scriptures of truth — the whole of it and every part of 
it in particular are equally true. And the promise which 
the Saviour made before He laid down His life to redeem 
a fallen world, was, that after his departure He would 
send the Spirit of Truth to guide His disciples into all 
truth, to teach them all things, and to abide with them 
for ever. 2 Hence truth is the same in this nineteenth 
century, as it was in the first, when the great Apostle to 
the Gentiles, as is most probable, delivered the glad 



1 Essays and Reviews, pp. 255, 256. 

2 St. John, xiv. 16, 26; xvi. 13. 

Z 



338 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



tidings of salvation to our ancestors in this island. Happy 
would it be if Mr. Pattison and his school could apply 
that theory as Clement of Alexandria once recommended 
— " Philosophy shall submit itself to theology as Hagar 
to Sarah ; but if it be unwilling to obey, 6 cast out the 
bondwoman.' " Until men consent to make their change- 
able philosophical speculations succumb to unchangeable 
theological truth, they cannot escape the errors into which 
the Essayist has fallen. 

Having thus committed himself as regards the way in 
which the Church has received the eternal truth, which 
Mr. Pattison assumes to be variable from age to age, so 
has he erred respecting the application of the " Catholic 
theory" to those who by courtesy are called "Koman 
Catholics," but whom, if speaking with philosophic pre- 
cision, we should prefer to call " Eomanists " or " Papists." 
Never, probably, in the history of the world, has any 
term been so misapplied as that of the term Catholic. 
It is only natural that the Eomanist, when he finds it 
conceded to him by unthinking Protestants, should make 
the most of it ; but how any one, capable of reason, should 
deliberately concede a point of such vital importance, in 
the way the Essayist has done, is surprising beyond 
measure. When we remember that the Church of Eome 
has made the acceptance of the Anti-Catholic creed of 
Pope Pius IV. 1 a sine qua non for admission to com- 



1 Every priest of the Church of Eome is bound by the modern 
creed of Pope Pius IV. to swear to the gigantic absurdity that he will 
" never interpret the Holy Scriptures otherwise than according to the 
unanimous consent of the Fathers ; " in which oath we have some rather 
singular instances of the way in which reason and faith are alike set at 
nought. We see this in the much controverted text of St. Matt. xvi. 
18, which may be said to contain the pivot-doctrine of the Roman 
Church. The celebrated Papal writer, Father Launoy, when exposing 
the wilful misrepresentations of Cardinal Bellarmine on the subject, 



THE CHURCH OF ROME ANTI-CATHOLIC. 



339 



munion, no one with the slightest pretensions to an ac- 
quaintance with what Catholic verities really are will 
ever make so fatal a blunder as to concede to that once 
flourishing, but now apostate, branch of the Church of 
Christ the glorious and unchangeable title of Catholic. 
If it were necessary to make this matter plain to common 
understandings, we have only to note the mode in which 
she has defined the truth according to the founder of the 
Jesuits, and which has been confirmed and approved by 
the chief of the Eoman hierarchy in England : — " That we 
may in all things attain the truth" taught Ignatius Loyola, 
" that we may not err in anything, we ought to hold it as 
a fixed principle, that what I see white 1 believe to be black 
if the hierarchial church so define it to be." 1 This candid 
specimen of Eome's love of truth is only to be paralleled 
by what one of her missionaries in China relates respect- 
ing the Imperial Will on a similar theological definition. 
The late Abbe Hue, in his " Travels in China," reports an 
interesting conversation between himself and one Ki-chan, 
a mandarin of letters, about public men in Europe and 
the Celestial Empire. " Your mandarins," said Ki-chan, 
" are more fortunate than ours. Our Emperor cannot 
know everything, yet he is judge of everything, and no 



gives seventeen extracts from various Fathers, in which St Peter is 
spoken of as the Hock ; eight passages from some of the same writers in 
which the Church is said to have been built upon all the Apostles ; forty- 
four extracts which make the faith of Peter's confession the rock ; and 
sixteen passages from many of the same authorities, which declare that 
the Church was built on Christ the rock. Vide Launoii Opera, t. v. 
p. 99, ep. vii. lib. v. Col. Allob. 1731. St. Augustine appears to have 
reached the climax of hermeneutical difficulties, when, after having in- 
terpreted this famous text in one place of Peter and in another of 
Christ, he adds, " Let the reader select which of the two meanings he 
deems the more probable.'''' — Aug. Retract, lib. i. t. i. p. 32, Ben. ed. 

1 Exercises of St. Ignatius, edited by the present Cardinal Wiseman. 
Dolman, London, 1847. 

z 2 



340 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



one dares find fault with any of his actions. Our Em- 
peror says, 4 That is white,'' and we prostrate ourselves 
and say, ' Yes, it is white' He shows us the same object 
afterwards and says, ' That is black,' and we prostrate 
ourselves again and say, e Yes, it is black.' " 

Such is the prostration or rather perversion of intellect 
amongst the heathen of China, as well as amongst nominal 
Christians in connexion with the Church of Borne. It is 
needless to say that such is not " the Catholic theory," 
as it has existed from the first, and will continue the 
same unto the last. We apprehend that Cyprian the 
martyr, Bishop of Carthage, understood the true Catholic 
theory in his day somewhat better than the present 
Eector of Lincoln College, Oxford ; and his definition 
of it is as follows : — " Whereas, there is one Church of 
Christ, divided throughout the world into many members, 
and one Episcopate, consisting of many concordant bishops ; 
this man (Novatian, a schismatical prelate), when there 
is already a divine tradition, and a unity of the Catholic 
Church already knit together, and combined throughout 
all parts, would fain establish a mere human Church, and 
despatch his own upstart Apostles amongst a multitude of 
cities, in order that they might lay the novel foundations 
of this institution of his own." 1 

So again, when the Essayist declares that, " In the 
Catholic theory, the feebleness of reason is met half-way, 
and made good by the authority of the Church " (p. 328) ; 
he misapplies the term " Catholic," and misunderstands 
the reasonableness of the Christian religion. It is un- 
questionably true, as Bacon said, that " he laboureth in 
vain who shall endeavour to draw down heavenly mys- 
teries to human reason ; it rather becomes us to bring our 
reason to the adorable throne of divine truth." Hence 



1 Cyprian, Ep. 52. 



THE ATIIAXASTAX CREED. 



341 



we cannot forget that when " the Catholic theory " was 
first announced by the Apostles at Beroea,and the people 
who heard them exercised their reason by comparing the 
preaching of Paul and Silas with the Scriptures, they 
were commended for so doing : " These were more noble 
than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word 
with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scripture 
daily whether these things were so." 1 

§ 4. We have spoken of the gulf which separates 
Catholicism from Eomanism. It will be right, therefore, 
to consider how far the ancient creeds of the Church are 
distinguishable from that modern creed of the Church of 
Eome, to which our attention has just been called. Mr. 
Wilson, in his Essay entitled Seances Historiques de 
Geneve, has some remarks respecting one of those ancient 
creeds, which require some notice. His theory appears 
to be contained in the following sentence : — " As an 
indication of a great extent of dissatisfaction on the part 
of the clergy to some portion, at least, of the formularies 
of the Church of England, may be taken the fact of the 
existence of various associations to procure their revision, 
or some liberty in their use, especially that of omitting 
one unhappy Creed." 2 We are confident that we do 
not wrong Mr. Wilson when we assume that his " one 



1 Acts, xvii. 11. Contrast this with the Eoman Catholic theory as 
embodied in the teaching of the Council of Trent. " If any one shall 
presume to read the Holy Bible without permission of the Bishop or 
Inquisitor, unless he shall first deliver up the Bible to the Ordinary, 
he must not receive absolution for his sins." — Cone. Trid. Canon iv. 
Or in the Bull of Pope Clement XI., which affirms, " The proposition 
of Quesnel, that 1 it is useful and necessary at all times and in all places, 
and for all sorts of persons to study, and to know the spirit and piety 
and mysteries of the Scriptures,' is false, captious, shocking, offensive 
to pious ears, scandalous, pernicious, rash, seditious, impious, and 
blasphemous." — Bull entitled " Unigenitus" a.d. 1713. 

2 Essays and Reviews, p. 150. 

z 3 



342 



KEVELATIOX AND SCIENCE. 



unliappy Creed," which he is so anxious to ehininate 
from among the standard formularies and authorities of 
the Church of England, can refer to none other than that 
which is commonly called the Athanasian Creed. We 
presume that the age is not yet sufficiently advanced in 
scepticism to warrant his advocating the banishment of 
either of those Creeds, known as the Apostles and the 
Nicene, especially with the warning of the last century 
before his eyes ; and he therefore thinks he can safely 
manifest his dislike towards the third, as being more 
recent, and therefore less defensible, than the other two. 
Now, we have no hesitation in affirming, confirmed as 
such an opinion must necessarily be by the position of 
Christendom at this present hour, that the retention or 
rejection of the Athanasian Creed is one of the chief 
causes of the gulf which separates the Churches of 
England and Geneva, as well as the only way by which 
we can reasonably account for " the rude shocks " which 
Christianity has experienced in one of " the strongholds 
of the Eeformation." Experience is singularly uniform on 
this subject : whether in England, Germany, Switzerland, 
or America, wherever the Creeds of the Catholic Church 
have been rejected or set aside, a lapse hito Unitarianism, 
which involves a rejection of those two fundamental 
truths — the worship of the Trinity hi Unity, and the 
doctrine of the Atonement, — has been the necessary result. 
Mr. "Wilson's admission respecting Switzerland ; the expo- 
sure which took place about twenty years ago hi England, 
when "Lady Hewley's Charity" was diverted by the 
Legislature from its intended course ; the rise of the 
rationalistic school hi Germany ; and the remarkable 
extension of Unitarianism in the United States of America, 
alike tell the same tale — that mankind needs some 
judicious restraints in things spiritual, as well as in 
things temporal. The definition of " unhappy," which the 



THE ATHANASIAN CREED. 



343 



Essayist has ascribed to the Athanasian Creed, to the use 
and approval of which he has freely given his assent and 
consent, is singularly inappropriate, and might, we appre- 
hend, be more properly applied to the condition of his 
own mind, since he must be conscious of holding prefer- 
ment in the Church of Christ on a tenure which in his 
heart he abhors. We justly contend that the epithet 
is inappropriate for the double reason — 1st, that in the 
Articles there is the general proposition that " Holy 
Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation ; so 
that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved 
thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should 
be believed as an Article of the Faith " (Art. VI.) ; and, 
2nd, that in the Athanasian Creed, in particular, there is 
nothing required to be believed but what may assuredly 
be proved by Holy Writ. Thus the popular idea to 
which, we suppose, the Essayist inclines, — that every 
word of the Creed is to be believed on pain of damnation, 
— is, in reality, a delusion, when the Creed itself is care- 
fully examined. For all that is required of us, as necessary 
to salvation, is, that before all things we hold the Catholic 
Faith ; and the Catholic Faith is explained to be this — 
that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, 
neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance ; 
which is repeated farther on. So that in all things, as is 
aforesaid, the Unity in Tri?iity is to be worshipped. He 
therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity. 
This is what the Creed and Holy Scripture alike require 
us to believe, if we desire an inheritance in the kingdom 
of God. What else the Creed contains is only brought 
as a proof and illustration in support, both of the doctrine 
of the Trinity, and also that of the Atonement ; and 
therefore, as Wheatly truly observes, " requires our assent 
no more than a sermon to prove or illustrate a text. The 
text, we know, is the Word of God, and therefore neces- 

z 4 



344 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



sary to be believed; but no person is, for that reason, 
bound to believe every particular of the sermon deduced 
from it upon pain of damnation, though every tittle of 
it may be true." 1 

It may be well, however, before proceeding farther, 
to attempt to define the meaning of the term, "the 
Catholic Faith," in its integrity and entirety. " I believe 
in the Holy Catholic Church," is the teaching of the 
Apostles' Creed; and the Catholic Faith is the embodi- 
ment of doctrine which that Holy Catholic Church has 
alike taught in all ages and in all countries, since the 
time when the Holy Ghost was given according to Christ's 
promise, to guide her into all truth, and to abide with 
her for ever. Hence the ancient definition of Catholicity 
in that well-known canon of Vincent of Lerins 2 — 
" Always, everywhere, and held by all," which accords 
with the still earlier canon of Tertullian 3 — "Whatsoever 
was first, that is truth ; whatsoever is later, that is adul- 
terated." 

Christendom, as it exists in the present day, consists of 
three great divisions, which may be described under the 
general terms of Catholics, Papists, and Non-Episcopa- 
lians. By Catholics we understand those who have com- 
bined Evangelical teaching with Apostolical order ; the 
doctrine of the Trinity, and all its blessed concomi- 
tants, together with that three-fold order of ministry 
which God has appointed for rule in the Church, which 
has ever existed since the day of Pentecost, and which 
presents so striking a contrast to the many other sys- 
tems which have been adopted by Christians, notwith- 
standing they are all of human invention. 

By Papists we mean those who recognise the Bishop of 



1 Wheatly's Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, 
ch. iii. § xv. 

2 Contra Haer. c. iii. 3 Adv. Praxeam, § ii. 



THEEEFOLD DIVISION OF CHRISTENDOM. 345 

Eome as Head of the Church, in place of Christ ; who call 
him " Father of the Faithful," contrary to the express pro- 
hibition of our Lord, who has said, " Call no man your 
Father upon the earth ; for one is your Father, which is 
in heaven ;" 1 and who, in defiance of all antiquity and 
truth, assume to themselves the exclusive title of Catholics, 
which some Protestants, from ignorance or want of 
thought, are too ready to concede unto them. But mas- 
much as the Church of Eome stands convicted of the three- 
fold sin of Supremacy, Apostasy, and Idolatry, — whether 
by the worship of " the Queen of Heaven," or of dead men 
and women, or the deified wafer, — according to the 
prophetic announcements of St. Paul and St. John, as set 
forth in the Epistles to the Thessalonians and to Timothy, 
and in the Book of Eevelation, no one, who can distinguish 
truth from error, ought to be guilty of so fatal a mistake 
as to concede to them a title to which they have no claim 
at all. 

By Non-Episcopalians we mean that large body of 
Nonconformists, as they are called in this country, who 
prefer, for the government of the community to which 
they respectively belong, anything of human devising 
rather than that which is of Divine appointment. They 
may be classified in the chronological order in which 
these several sections of Christendom arose, as Unitarians, 
Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Independents or Congrega- 
tionalists, Wesleyans, Plymouth Brethren, and Mor- 
monites, or Latter-day Saints. We do not mean to say 
that these various bodies of Christians teach alike on 
the great doctrines of the Gospel. On some fundamental 
truths they are at issue among themselves, as much as 
they differ from the full teaching of the " Catholic Faith." 
But we suppose we do them no wrong when we say that 



1 St. Matt, xxiii. 9. 



346 



KEVELATION AM) SCIENCE. 



they, one and all, reject the language and the definitions 
of the Athanasian Creed, together with its use, in the 
same manner as the Unitarians originally, and the whole 
body of Non-Episcopalians generally, have confounded 
the doctrines of Eegeneration and Conversion 1 , which 
have always been distinguished and separated in the 
teaching of Christ's " Holy Catholic Church." 

Mr. Wilson, however, appears to consider that this 
" unhappy creed " is so distasteful to the clergy at large, 
that it is the chief thing to be got rid of, when " the 
various associations " which have been formed to " pro- 
cure a revision of the formularies of the Church " are 
enabled to carry their theories into practice. We cannot 
but think that our Essayist is over-sanguine in his con- 
clusions, as we cannot forget the failure of a certain noble 
Lord, who attempted last year to support the cause of the 
revisionists before the Legislature, for these two reasons — 
1st, that " he believed the great majority of the clergy 
of the Church of England were in favour of revision ;" 
and, 2ndly, that " he was unable to see why he should 
continue to pray in had grammar" as he considered the 
language of the Prayer Book to be. 2 We hardly know how 
the noble advocate arrived at these singular conclusions ; 
for the fact of ten thousand of the clergy having peti- 
tioned against revision, whereas we believe only about four 
hundred were found on the opposite side, would seem to 



1 The Racovian Catechism, drawn up by Socirms in the sixteenth 
century, contains the earliest intimation of this error, which has subse- 
quently become the great Shibboleth of the creed of modern Dissenters, 
and presents an instructive contrast to the language of the most profound 
theologian given to the Church since the days of St. Paul, the saintly 
Augustine, who taught, "the Sacrament of Baptism, by which children 
are regenerated to God, is one thing, conversion of the heart is another" 
Compare De Verb. Ap. Serm. viii. 8, with Contr. Don. iv. 24, 25. 

2 Speech of Lord Ebury in the House of Lords, May 1861. 



LITURGICAL REVISION. 



347 



imply tliat " the great majority " were rather adverse than 
friendly to the cause which he so incautiously espoused. 
And the accusation of " bad grammar," which he so unhe- 
sitatingly brought against our venerated Book of Common 
Prayer, we meet by quoting the unexceptionable testi- 
mony of a Nonconformist minister, who was considered 
in his own time a competent judge of the beauty of our 
Saxon tongue, and who thus expressed himself respecting 
the merits of our English Liturgy : — " I believe," said 
Eobert Hall, " that the Evangelical purity of its senti- 
ments, the chastised fervour of its devotions, and the ma- 
jestic simplicity of its language, have combined to place 
it in the very first rank of uninspired compositions." 1 

Possibly, however, the noble Lord would have been 
content with the novel proposition which his Grace the 
Primate mentioned during the debate as having been 
gravely suggested by one of the leaders amongst the 
revisionists, when he observed that " one of the ablest 
advocates of revision proposed to place the alterations 
between brackets, and to leave an alternative to the clergy- 
man to read whichever sentence he approved" 2 Surely 
this curious mode of encouraging uniformity must have 
come from the other side of the water • but we hardly 
think, even if acceptable to the Essayist, it would be 



1 Speech at the Anniversary Meeting of the Bible Society in Lei- 
cester, a.d. 1812. 

2 In considering the subject of Liturgical revision we should never 
forget to distinguish between lawfulness and expediency, according to 
the advice which St. Paul more than once repeated in writing to the 
Corinthians; " I shall, for my part," said Archbishop Laud, " never 
deny that the Liturgy of the Church of England may be made better ; 
but I am sure, withal, it may easily be made worse : this will bring- 
forth a schism firm enough to rend and tear religion out of this 
kingdom, which God, for the merits and mercies of Christ, forbid." 
— Opera, vol. iv. p. 29. 



348 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



deemed a satisfactory solution of a difficult problem by 
either of the three theological schools, into which the 
Church of England is said to be divided. 

Again, Mr. Wilson observes respecting the great Catholic 
doctrine of Justification by faith^ that the Lutherans re- 
present it as " having died out shortly after the Apostolic 
age ;" and adds that " it never was the doctrine of any 
considerable portion of the Church till the time of the 
Reformation. It is not met with in the immediately post 
Apostolic writings, nor in the Apostolic writings, except 
those of St. Paul, nor even in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
which is of the Pauline or Paulo- Johannean school. The 
faith at least of that Epistle, 4 the substance of things 
hoped for,' is a very different faith from the faith of the 
Epistle to the Romans, — if the Lutherans are correct in 
representing that to be a conscious apprehending of the 
benefits to the individual soul of the Saviour's merits 
and passion " (p. 160). Those who believe in the in- 
spiration of the writers of the New Testament will of 
course reject this unfounded theory of there being any 
difference in their teaching, such as the Essayist supposes, 
much less on such an important doctrine as the mode by 
which a sinner is accounted righteous before God. Those 
who are acquainted with the ecclesiastical writings of the 
sixteenth century, well know that this was the chief point 
on which Luther made his memorable stand against the 
Church of Rome ; and the manner in which it was re- 
ceived he rightly pronounced to be the sign 44 stantis vel 
cadentis Ecclesiw." And it is difficult to understand how a 
clergyman of the Church of England, who is compelled to 
express his adherence to the doctrine of 44 Justification by 
Faith only," could express himself in the way he has done 
on so vital a point of Gospel truth. The catholic teaching 
of the Church of England is expressed as follows — 44 We 
are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of 



THE ANCIENT DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION. 



349 



our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for 
our works or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified 
by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine." 1 The anti- 
catholic teaching of the Church of Borne 2 is expressed 
somewhat differently : " Whosoever shall affirm that the 
ungodly is justified by faith only, so that it is to be under- 
stood that nothing else is required to co-operate therewith 
in order to obtain justification ; and that it is on no account 
necessary that he should prepare and dispose himself by 
the effort of his own will; let him be accursed." 3 

Those who know what the early Fathers taught on this 
all important and fundamental truth, will stand aghast at 
the hardihood or the limited knowledge of the person 
who could venture to write that " the doctrine of justi- 
fication by subjective faith is not met with in the imme- 
diately post Apostolic writings, nor in the Apostolic writ- 
ings, except those of St Paul, and in fact never was the 
doctrine of any considerable portion of the Church till the 
time of the Eeformation" (pp. 159, 160). 

Let us hear the words of some of the great theologians 
of different ages, and judge how far this bold assertion is 
borne out by facts. 

Thus Clemens Bomanus, in the first century, writes : — 
" We are not justified by ourselves, neither by our own 
wisdom, or knowledge, or piety, or the works which ive have 
done in the holiness of our hearts, but by that faith by 
which God Almighty has justified all men from the 
beginning." 4 



1 Art. xi. " Of the Justification of Man." 

2 Bishop of Coventry : " Why will yon not admit the Church of 
Rome to be the Catholic Church ? " Philpot : " Because it followeth 
not the Primitive Catholic Church, neither agreeth with the same, no 
more than an apple is like a nut." — The Trial of Martyr Philpot. 

3 Concil. Trid. Sess. vi. Canon xi. 4 Ep. ad Corinth. § 32. 



350 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Thus Justin Martyr, in the second century : — " Abraham, 
while he was yet in uncircurncision, was justified through 
that faith by which he believed in God, and received the 
blessing, as the Scripture testifies. But he received cir- 
cumcision for a sign, not for righteousness, as the same 
Scriptures, and the nature of the thing, forces us to 
acknowledge." 1 

Thus Origen, in the third century : — " Justification by 
faith only is sufficient, so that if any person only believe, 
he may be justified, though no good work hath been done 
by him." 2 And again, " The dying thief was justified by 
faith without the works of the laiv ; because concerning 
these, the Lord did not inquire what he had done before ; 
neither did he stay to ask what work he was purposing 
to perform after he had believed ; but, the man being justi- 
fied by his own confession only, Jesus, who was going to 
Paradise, took him as a companion and carried him 
there." 3 

Thus Basil the Great, in the fourth century : — " Ever- 
lasting rest is laid up for them that strive lawfully in this 
life ; not to be rendered according to the debt of works, 
but exhibited according to the grace of the very bounti- 
ful God to them that put their trust in Him." 4 

Thus Jerome, of the same century: — " If we consider our 
own merits we must despair." 5 And again, "When the 
day of judgment or of the sleep of death shall come, all 
hands shall fail ; because no work shall be found worthy 
of the justice of God." 6 

Thus Chrysostom, in the same century : — " Although we 
suffered a thousand deaths, although we performed all 



1 Dial, cum Trypho. § 23. 
3 Comm. in Luke, xxiii. 43. 
5 Comm. in Esai. c. lxiv. 



2 Comm. in Eom. iii. 28. 
4 Comm. in Psalm cxiv. 
6 Ibid. c. xiii. 



THE ANCIENT DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION. 



351 



virtuous actions, we should yet fall far short of rendering 
anything worthy of those honours which .are conferred 
upon us by God." 1 And again, "It is of God, since it is 
not of works (which would require spotless perfection), 
but by grace ive are justified, where all sin is blotted 
out," 2 

Thus St. Augustine 3 , in the same century, and we pre- 
fer in this instance to give his own words : — " Nullane igitur 
sunt rnerita justorum ? Sunt plane quia justi sunt. Sed 
ut justi sunt. Sed ut justi flerent merita non fuerunt. 
Justi enim facti sunt, cum justificati sunt, sed sicut elicit 
Apostolus, justificaii gratis per gratiam ipsius. ,,4: And 
again, " Neque ex lege justitia, neque per naturse possibili- 
tatem, sed ex fide et clono Dei per Jesum Christum Do- 
minum nostrum." 5 

Thus Cyril of Alexandria, in the fifth century : — " Evan- 
gelical preaching is grace by faith, justification in Christ, 
and sanctification through the Holy Spirit." 6 And again, 
" The law proclaimed before that those who were shut up 
under sin should he justified by faith in Christ alone." 7 

Thus Theodoret in the same century : — " The salvation 
of men depends upon the sole mercy of God, for we do 
not obtain it as the wages of our righteousness, but it is 
the gift of God's goodness." 8 



1 De Compunc. ad Stelechmm, torn. vi. ed. Savile, p. 157. 

2 Homily ii. on 2 Ep. to Cor. v. 

3 Elsewhere St. Augustine pronounces the doctrine of Justification 
by Faith to be " Vera et Peophetica et Apostolica et Catholica Fides," 
which golden sentence the Benedictine editors have given in capital 
letters. Liber de Corruptione et Gratia, torn. x. p. 75, Ben. ed. 

4 Ad Sextum, Epist. 194, torn. ii. Ben. ed. 

5 Ad Innoc. Epist. 177. 

6 Comm. in Esaiam, 1. iii. torn. ii. p. 402, Lut. 1638. 

7 De Ador. in Spir. et Verit. 1. xv. torn. ii. p. 527. 

8 In Sophoni, c. iii. 



352 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Thus Gregory the Great in the sixth century : — " All 
the righteousness of man is proved to be unrighteousness, 
if it be strictly judged." 1 

If we pass on from the Fathers of the first six centuries 
to the Middle Ages, we find about the year a.d. 1100, 
there was a form of consolation to the dying, said to have 
been written by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
printed a.d. 1476, in Germany, which will afford us some 
insight into the mode of teaching the doctrine of " Justi- 
fication by Faith " by the few enlightened men who con- 
tended for the Catholic faith amidst the almost universal 
darkness of Popery. It was in the following words : — 
" Go to, then, as long as thou art in life, put all thy con- 
fidence in the death of Christ alone — confide in nothing 
else — commit thyself wholly to it — roll thyself wholly on 
it. And if the Lord will judge thee, say, 4 Lord, I put the 
death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and Thy 
judgment, otherwise I contend not with Thee.' And if 
He say, ' Thou art a sinner,' reply, 4 Put the death of our 
Lord Jesus Christ between me and my sins.' And if He 
say, 4 Thou has deserved damnation,' let thine answer be, 
4 Lord, I spread the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between 
me and my demerits ; I offer His merits I should have had 
and have not.' And if He still insist that He is angry at 
thee, reply again, 4 Lord, I put the death of our Lord Jesus 
Christ between me and Thine anger.' " 

We think this is sufficient to show that the Essayist 
is not borne out in his assertion that the doctrine of 
Justification by Faith 44 never was the doctrine of any 
considerable portion of the Church till the time of the 
Keformation." 

This is a sufficient reply to the lamentable error and 



Moral in Job. lib. ix. c. 14. 



THE ROMAN DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION. 



353 



confusion into which Mr. Wilson has fallen respecting the 
grand Catholic, and, therefore, unchangeable, doctrine of 
Justification by Faith only for the merits of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ, and not for our own works or 
deservings. 

The difference between the unchangeable " Catholic 
theory " on the subject of man's justification, as stated 
above, and the teaching of the Eoman Church on the 
same all-important doctrine, will be seen by a reference 
to the creeds and canons of that fallen communion. 
" I embrace and receive all and every one of the things 
which have been defined and declared in the Holy Council 
of Trent concerning original sin and justification," is the 
language of the fourth article of the creed of Pope Pius 
TV. The teaching of the Council of Trent on this sub- 
ject is as follows: — "Whosoever shall affirm that the 
ungodly is justified by faith only, so that it is to be under- 
stood that nothing else is required to co-operate there- 
with in order to obtain justification ; and that it is on no 
account necessary that he should prepare and dispose 
himself by the effort of his own will ; let him be accursed. 
Whosoever shall affirm, that men are justified solely by 
the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, or by the 
remission of sin, to the exclusion of grace and charity 
which is shed abroad in their hearts, and inheres in them ; 
or that the grace by which we are justified is only the 
favour of God ; let him be accursed. Whosoever shall 
affirm that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence 
in the Divine mercy, by which sins are forgiven for Christ's 
sake ; or, that it is that confidence only by which we are 
justified ; let him be accursed. Whosoever shall affirm, 
that a justified man, how perfect soever, is not bound to 
keep the commandments of God, and the Church, but 
only to believe ; as if the Gospel were a naked and abso- 

A A 



354 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



lute promise of eternal life, without the condition of 
keeping the commandments : let him be accursed." 1 

The statements put forth by another of the Essayists on 
this important subject require notice. " 4 Justified by 
faith without works,' and 'justified by faith as well as 
works,' are equally scriptural expressions,'' observes 
Professor Jowett in his Essay " On the Interpretation 
of Scripture," 44 the one has become the formula of 
Protestants, the other of Eoman Catholics." 2 This is 
so far true, though an imperfect way of stating a great 
Scriptural doctrine ; but when we find the same writer 
speaking of 44 balancing the adverse statements of St. 
James and St. Paul" (p. 366), we discover at once his 
misunderstanding of the first principles of the Christian 
religion. No believer in Revelation can for a moment 
admit the possibility of there being any 44 adverse state- 
ments " between two inspired apostles, and it requires no 
very deep skill in the interpretation of Scripture to dis- 
cover the way, and the only way, by which the apparently 
(not really) contradictory statements concerning justifi- 
cation can be explained and reconciled. It would have 
been well for Professor Jowett if he could have received 
and understood the explanation which two such eminent 
doctors of early and later days (St. Augustine and Bishop 
Beveridge) have given of the uniformity of the teaching 
of the Catholic Church respecting this important matter. 
44 Non sunt," taught the former, 44 sibi contrariae duorum 
Apostolorum sentential Pauli et Jacobi, cum elicit unus 
justificari hominem per fidem sine operibus ; Quia ille 
elicit de operibus qua; fidem praecedunt, is de his qua3 
fidem sequuntur." The latter observed, 44 It is by faith 



1 Cone. Trid. Session vi. Canons 9, 11, 12, 20. 

2 Essays and Reviews, p. 331. 



BUDDHISM THE GOSPEL OF INDIA ! 



355 



and not by works that man is accounted righteous in 
heaven ; but it is by works only and not by faith that a 
man is esteemed righteous upon earth." What, there- 
fore, the Essayist terms " the formula of Protestants," is 
really Catholic, true, and right ; and we venture to remind 
him that this must be his own opinion likewise, for, as a 
clergyman of the Church of England, he has sworn that 
the doctrine of being "justified by faith only is a most 
wholesome doctrine," since " we are accounted righteous 
before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or de- 
servings." 1 What he calls " the formula of Catholics," 
or, in other words, the mode of a sinner's justification as 
taught by the Church of Borne, is anti-Scriptural, anti- 
Catholic, and untrue. 

§ 5. If we have exposed the lamentable mis-statements 
of certain of the Essayists in their inability to distinguish 
between the teaching of the Catholic and the Eoman 
Churches on the doctrine of man's justification, or being 
accounted righteous by God ; still more strange and de- 
plorable is the mental confusion of another Essayist re- 
specting the religion known as Buddhism, as we gather 
from a statement put forth on this subject. "It would 
not be very tasteful," observes Mr. Wilson in his Essay on 
" The National Church," " as an exception to this descrip- 
tion (of the religion of the Eoman empire) to call Budd- 
hism the Gospel of India, preached to it five or six 
centuries before the Gospel of Jesus was proclaimed in 
the nearer East. But on the whole it would be more like 
the realities of things, as we can now behold them, to say 
that the Christian revelation was given to the Western 
world, because it deserved it better, and was more prepared 



Art xi. Of the Justification of Man. 

A A 2 



356 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



for it than the East." 1 We do not know upon what 
ground the Essayist is warranted in affirming that the reli- 
gious principles or practices of the West "deserved" 
Christianity " better " than the East. The picture which 
St. Paul has drawn, in the first chapter of the Epistle to 
the Eomans, of the Paganism which pervaded the civilised 
world in his day, and which too closely resembles the 
religion of human nature without a Divine Bevel ation, 
militates most strongly against his theory. But we cannot 
condemn too strongly his profanation and desecration of 
our honest Saxon term for " good news," though partially 
veiled by a negative, when he speaks of "Buddhism the 
Gospel of India." 

Let us consider what this " Buddhism " really is. 
Ksempfer, in his History of Japan 2 , supposes that the 
principal object of worship in India, the Sacred Bull, 
was derived from Egypt, having been instituted by their 
great Budha Siaka, who died, according to their Son- 
carad or ecclesiastical record, near the beginning of the 
sixth century B.C. As this agrees with the time of the 
conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, who heaped such indig- 
nities upon the religion of the Egyptians, it is probable 
that it was some priest of Memphis to whom the Indians 
gave the name of Budha Siaka, or great saint, who fled at 
that time to India, and taught, with other superstitions, the 



1 Essays and Reviews, p. 156. 

2 Vol. i. p. 38. Sir William Jones places the origin of Buddhism 
about a thousand years before the Christian era ; and supposes the sys- 
tem to have been introduced by a younger Buddha, whom he distin- 
guishes from that earlier Buddha who is placed by the Hindoo records 
in the age of the Deluge. The Buddhists, who once reigned in Gour 
and throughout North India before their extermination by the Brah- 
mins, may be regarded as the misuccessful reformers of a degraded 
superstition, which it were profanation to compare in any way to the 
" Gospel " of Christ. 



THE RELIGION OF BUDDHISM. 



357 



worship of the Bull Apis. 1 The four Yeclas, or the first 
class of their Shasters, which are said to contain eighteen 
distinct kinds of knowledge, of course claim a much 
higher antiquity for the religion of India. There is a 
good story told of a learned professor from America 
having gravely requested Sir William Jones to search 
among the Hindoos for the Adamic Books, upon the same 
principle, we may conclude, which induced the Welsh 
antiquarian to display his pedigree before King James, in 
the middle of which was discovered an instructive anno- 
tation : " About this time it is supposed that Adam lived." 
The amazing credulity of sceptics and unbelievers in every 
thing except the records of the Sacred Scriptures is no- 
torious. There is no doubt, however, that the age of the 
Vedas is considerably older than the time of Buddha, who 
merely grafted an additional superstition upon others 
equally bad, and considerably older ; and if we accept the 
conclusion of that profound Oriental scholar, whose name 
we have just mentioned, we may allow them an antiquity 
of 3000 years, which would place them about two or 
three hundred years after the time of Moses. 

But the question which concerns us is the religion 
of the Hindoo, which, if it may not be called " the 
Gospel of India," fell only one degree short, according 
to the Essayist, of the intellectual heathen worship 
of Greece and Eome. Like the Mahommedan, the 
Hindoo in theory acknowledges one Supreme Being as 



1 We have a strong confirmation of this in the way in which the 
Sepoy troops, who were marched from India at the beginning of this 
present century to take part in the campaign of Egypt, immediately 
recognised their ancestral idols when they arrived on the banks of the 
Nile, paying them the same adoration which the ancient Egyptians 
were accustomed to perform. See Alison's Hist, of Europe, vol. v, 
ch. xxxiv. 

a a 3 



358 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



the ground and foundation of his religion. Eh Brumho 
ditty o nashti, " One God, and beside him no other," 
has become a proverb, and is in the mouth of every 
Brahmin priest. This Supreme Being, called Brahm, 
whom we must be careful to distinguish from Brahma 
an emanation from the former, and the first person 
in the Hindoo Trinity, is represented in the Shasters 
as possessed of all the Divine attributes, which are as- 
cribed in the Bible to Jehovah. They declare, however, 
that being all spirit, without form, and therefore de- 
void of qualities, a multiplication of him is rendered 
necessary. Hence the Brahmin rejects the God of the 
Scriptures, because it appears impossible and irrational for 
him to believe that spirit can act and create, without 
being united with matter. After a sleep of many ages, 
which is considered as the highest beatitude, the Vedas de- 
clare that Brahm awoke, and feeling desire arising within, 
exclaimed, " Let me be many." Forthwith he took upon 
himself a material form, and henceforth he resembles a 
spider, sitting in the centre, spinning out his endless 
threads, and fastening what he produces from himself to 
the right and left, towards all quarters of the infinite 
vacuum. 

The cosmogony of the Shasters, which reminds us 
somewhat of the Darwinian theory, may be described as 
follows : — All the germs of the world, which subsequently 
came into existence, were condensed in the shape of an 
egg 1 , of which Brahm took possession in the form of 

1 This resembles the Egyptian cosmogony, as it appears on the coffins 
of the period of the twelfth dynasty, when Joseph was viceroy of Egypt. 
Part of the twenty-sixth chapter of the funeral ritual, as translated by 
Dr. Hincks, contains this dogma, alluded to in the Orphic Cosmogony : 
" 1 am the Egg of the Great Cackler. I have protected the great Egg 
laid by Seb in the world : I grow, it grows in turn : I live, it lives in 
turn : I breathe, it breathes in turn." 



THE EELIGION OF BRAHMANISM. 



359 



Brahma. One thousand jugs, which equal 300,000,000 
years, elapsed before the egg was hatched; During that 
period it floated like a bubble upon the mighty deep. At 
length it broke, and Brahma sprang to light ; having 1000 
heads with an equal number of eyes and arms to enable him 
to undertake the work of creation. Similarly with this in- 
carnation, another monster appeared from the same egg, 
whose hairs were forest trees, his head the clouds, his 
beard the lightning, his breath the atmosphere, his voice 
the thunder, his eyes the sun and moon, his nails the 
rocks, and his bones the mountains of the earth. The 
egg being thus hatched, Brahm, as creator, retired from 
the scene and relapsed into his former state of somnolent 
blessedness. The earth is represented as a flat plain of 
circular form, measuring 400,000,000 miles in circum- 
ference ; and resting upon an enormous snake with a hun- 
dred heads, which is itself supported by a gigantic tortoise. 
When the former shakes one of his heads, an earthquake 
is thereby caused ; an original idea certainly, reminding 
us of the waggish mode of accounting for the juicy sub- 
stance in the interior of the cocoa-nut. 

Besides Brahma, there are the emanations from 
him called Vishnu and Shiva, which together form 
the Hindoo Trinity. Brahma, the creator, is usually 
represented in the form of a man with four faces, the 
symbols of omniscience, and riding upon a goose. In 
no part of India is a temple to Brahma to be seen, and 
the reason of this neglect is that he was convicted of 
every species of profligacy and wickedness, and in some 
passages the Shasters emphatically denominate him " the 
father of lies." Vishnu, the preserver, is represented 
in the form of a black man, with four arms, riding 
upon Gururu, an animal half-man and half-bird. Divine 
homage, however, is not paid to him in this form, as he 
is worshipped only in his incarnations, such as Bam and 

A A 4 



360 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



Krishna. He is said to have appeared nine times already 
upon earth, and the tenth incarnation is expected at some 
future period. Shiva, the destroyer, the third person in 
the Hindoo Trinity, appears as a terrible deity. In his 
right hand he holds a trident ; his countenance is horrible ; 
his necklace consists of human skulls ; his bracelets, ear- 
rings, and other ornaments, are made up of poisonous 
snakes. Though Shiva is considered generally as the de- 
stroyer ; he appears frequently in the Shasters as creator ; 
which the Brahmins explain as follows : " So long as the 
world lasts, there can be no destruction, it is merely dis- 
solution ; and the same elements return, but probably in 
different forms, into existence." 1 Hence destruction be- 
comes according to such pantheistical notions, nothing but 
renovation or re-production, which reminds us of Pro- 
fessor Baden Powell's dictum that " creation is only 
another name for our ignorance of the mode of produc- 
tion ; " 2 or of Mr. Darwin's favourite hobby of " natural 
selection" Thus Shiva displays his power in destruction 
and creation at the same time ; when his thunderbolt strikes 
human life, he restores the same by metempsychosis, 
transmigration, or new birth. This triad of gods, Brahma, 
Vishnu, and Shiva, with their consorts Saraswati, Durga, 
and Lackhi, are said to have produced the 300,000,000 of 
gods with which the deluded Hindoo has furnished his 
pantheon. And we think it would be well if those who 
profess Christianity at home did but act up to their ob- 
ligations of doing all that lies in their power to dispel the 



1 The Pythagorean notion, that nothing is annihilated, but that it 
only changes its form, and that death is reproduction, was clearly 
of Egyptian origin. It used to be typified in Egypt by the figure 
of an infant at the extremity of a tomb beyond the sarcophagus of the 
dead. 

2 Essays and Reviews, p. 139. 



THE RELIGION OP BRAHMANISM. 



361 



moral darkness which the following anecdote too mourn- 
fully testifies as existing throughout Hindostan. " You tell 
me, Padre," said a native convert to an English missionary, 
" that there are millions called Christians in England, while 
so very few come here to teach us the way to heaven. 
When you write home to your friends, tell them that though 
there are yet 300,000,000 idol gods which can neither 
see nor speak, and whom the people ignorantly worship, 
who knows but at the day of judgment God may give 
each of these idols a tongue to speak in condemnation of 
the lukewarmness of English Christians towards India ? " 

One of the many evils connected with the Hindoo reli- 
gion, and one of the chief hindrances to the spread of the 
true (not the "Buddhist") Gospel in India, is the distinction 
of caste. The Shasters teach that Brahma, by means of 
successive emanations from himself, called various classes 
of mankind into existence. Eirst the Brahmin escaped 
from his mouth, as the representation of God in human 
form. The nature of his birth signified him to be, not 
only the highest and most exalted of all human beings, but 
likewise the intended teacher, and the mediating priest 
between the gods and mankind. Erom the arm of Brahma, 
as defender of the body, sprang the Ksethryo, the warrior- 
caste, which was appointed to protect the people by his 
powerful arm, and to defend his brethren against the op- 
pression of the wicked. From Brahma's breast issued the 
Vyasa, or caste of tradesmen, whose duty was to provide 
for the wants of mankind ; and from the humblest mem- 
ber, his foot, came the despised Sudra, or the servile caste, 
whose task was to perform every kind of menial labour 
for their nobler-born brethren, both at home and in the 
field. So unchangeable is this institution of caste in the 
estimation of the Hindoos, and so firm is their belief in 
its appointment being of Divine origin, that a transition 
from one caste to another is absolutely impossible. A 



362 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



sovereign cannot purchase the Brahrninical thread, which 
is the badge of their dignity, for the wealth of the world. 
And just as a turnip can never become a man (Darwin non 
obstante), so neither can a Sudra be turned into a Brah- 
min, i. e. transmigration is not recognised in this present 
world. In the future the philosophic principles of the 
Darwinian school may possibly prove true according to 
the Hindoo theory, only in a somewhat inverse order. 
For if a poor despised Sudra has happened to injure or 
offend a haughty Brahmin, the revenge of the hateful 
priest pursues the poor wretch into the other world. If 
a Sudra meets a Brahmin in a disrespectful manner, after 
death he becomes a tree ; if he ventures to cast an angry 
glance at him, Yama, the god of the lower regions, will 
tear out his eyes ; or if he beat the Brahmin with only a 
single straw, he will in the course of twenty transmigrations 
be turned into an impure beast. 

India, like Europe in the Middle Ages, is a paradise for 
the priests. When Hindooism was at its zenith, the 
Brahmin could not be punished. Though he had com- 
mitted every crime under the sun, no prince dared to 
execute him. All the offerings which the Hindoo pre- 
sents to his gods fall, as a matter of course, to the 
Brahmin. The dying Hindoo, who leaves him in his will 
some of his goods and cattle, will, freed from sin, enter 
forthwith into Shiva's paradise. He who sells his cow, 
which is considered a sacred animal, will go to hell ; but 
if he only make it over to a Brahmin, he is sure of 
heaven. Polygamy prevails to a great extent among the 
highest classes, viz. the Coolin Brahmins, many of whom 
possess between twenty and thirty wives, or even more. 
An English missionary mentions that once on a journey 
he met such an one, who complained to him, " I have 
only three wives, but my brother has ten." This profli- 
gate custom has produced an abundant crop of wicked- 



PEAYEKS OF THE HINDOOS. 



363 



ness in India, as it invariably has done wherever practised, 
whether amongst the Turks in the East, or the Mormons 
in the West. Of all India's degraded and demoralised 
sons, the Brahmin priest is the most deeply debased. Mr. 
Hoi well, an English judge at Calcutta, said concerning 
them, " During five years in which I occupied the chair 
in the criminal court of that city, a case of murder or 
other crime never came under my notice for investigation 
where a Brahmin was not the guilty party, or had not 
his share in the case." 

One or two extracts from the Vedas will enable us 
to form some idea of the prayers which the Hindoos 
are taught to use, and which some philosophers at 
home will doubtless consider so suitable to the wants 
of mankind, as to forbid any attempt to replace "the 
Gospel of India" by the introduction of Christianity. 
" Ugni," are the words of a prayer, " god of the 
fire, pray repose upon this chair of kusu grass ; I 
invite thee to taste the clarified butter ; thou hast 
thy dwelling in the mind, and everywhere ; make 
my desire known to Gocl, that my offering may be 
accepted, and that I may obtain honour among men." 
Another is as follows : " Indra, give us riches without 
measure, consisting of gold, oxen, provisions, and long 
life. We ask more riches of Indra, whether you obtain 
them from men, or from the inhabitants of heaven, or 
from the infernal regions, — wherever you may get them ; 
only make us rich." 

One characteristic feature of Hindooism is that its 
votaries appear to have lost all distinction between 
the Creator and the creature. Many professed Chris- 
tians have spoken with enthusiastic admiration of the 
Hindoo writings, asserting that they contain the most 
sublime doctrines, and inculcate the purest morality; 
but they would speedily find this to be an . egre- 



364 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



gious error, if they would allow the Brahmins to ex- 
pound their own Shasters. " During my stay in India," 
writes a German missionary of the Church of England, 
" I often looked out for a Cornelius, and one day I 
thought I had found one. I was arguing with a number 
of Hindoos. When they could proceed no farther, they 
said, 6 Come to our holy father ; he is one of the wisest 
and holiest of men, he will soon silence you.' Coming 
to the man, I found he was a Faheer, a worshipper of 
Shiva. I asked him, 'Whom do you worship?' He 
replied, 6 God.' 4 Who is God ? ' I said. He arose from 
his seat, laid his left hand upon his breast, pointed with 
his right to heaven, and lifting up his eyes, said, 4 1 
worship God, the eternal, the infinite, omnipotent, omni- 
scient, and omnipresent ; the holy, just, and righteous ; 
the Creator of heaven and earth, the Supreme Euler of 
all things ; He it is whom I worship.' I rejoiced at this 
sublime declaration, and wishing to hear these beautiful 
words once more, I repeated my question, 4 And who is 
that adorable Being whom you worship?' The Fakeer 
pointed to himself, and replied, 4 / am He, He that speaks 
in me ; I am that Being, I am a part of Him, I am He! 
When we know their systems, it is easy to silence them ; 
and of late I have found it sufficient to ask two questions, 
which no Brahmin was ever able to answer. I ask, 
4 Who speaks in us?' Every Hindoo will reply, 4 God.' 
My second question is, 4 Who tells lies ? ' The Hindoo 
will say, 4 God.' Upon this we need but look the man 
in the face, and ask him, 4 Is God a liar ? ' And ninety- 
nine out of a hundred will call out, 4 No ! God is no liar ; 
we are the liars, the sinners.' " 1 Another missionary, of 
German birth, also a clergyman of the Church of England, 



1 Recollections of an Indian Missionary, by the Rev. C. B. Leopolt, 
pp. 25—29. 



THE NEGATIVE THEOLOGY. 



365 



after long experience of the Hindoo religion, thus testified 
to the unsuitability of Buddhism in any way being " the 
Gospel for India;" and as his remarks bear upon the 
question of rationalism, we would commend them to 
the careful consideration of the Essayist, and those who 
think with him. " On returning to my native country, 
after fourteen years' absence, I was astonished to find 
that a system of heathenish origin had gained its admirers 
and followers in Protestant Germany. The prevailing 
system of our modern infidel philosophers is pantheism in 
principle ; the personality of God is denied. I told my 
countrymen, he that desires to learn the true character 
of this philosophy, separated and denuded of all Christian 
ideas, together with its moral bearing, should go to 
Bengal, and, settled on the Ganges, among the Brahmins, 
who have known it for thousands of years, and developed 
it to perfection, I feel assured the sight of their horrid, 
idolatrous ceremonies would shake his whole being. He 
certainly would return home, radically cured of all pan- 
theistical ideas ; he would be compelled, in putting his 
hand on the Bible, to exclaim, here is life and truth, 
which satisfies the soul, and rejoices the heart ; there is 
falsehood, corruption, and death." 1 

§ 6. We must notice before we close some of the state- 
ments respecting the " negative theology " system, as it has 
been appropriately termed. Mr. Wilson, in his Essay on 
" The National Church," has declared that the rapid spread 
of this " negative theology " amongst us, so far from being 
attributable to the researches of " German Biblical critics," 
as some imagine, is " rather owing to a spontaneous recoil, 
on the part of large numbers of the more acute of our 
population, from some of the doctrines which are to be 



1 A Course of Lectures delivered on Indian Missions, by J. J. Weit- 
brecht. 



366 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



heard at church and chapel ; to a distrust of the old ar- 
guments for, or proofs of a miraculous revelation ; and to 
a misgiving as to the authority, or extent of the authority, 
of the Scriptures. In the presence of real difficulties of 
this kind, probably of genuine English growth, it is vain 
to seek to check that open discussion out of which alone 
any satisfactory settlement of them can issue." 1 

In placing " doctrines which are to be heard at church 
and chapel " in the same category, the Essayist appears to 
confound things which essentially differ. We do not mean 
that many Catholic truths may not be heard at chapel 
as well as church, but we have no guarantee that nothing 
but what is truth should be heard there ; whereas at church, 
if any minister preaches what is contrary to the truth, 
he does it of his own proprio motu, against the declared 
teaching of his church, and by that act renders himself 
liable to trial, and, if guilty, to punishment and depriva- 
tion. On the other hand, at chapel, one may hear not 
only much that is professedly contrary to Catholic truth, 
but if any Nonconformist minister preaches extreme "nega- 
tive theology " to his congregation, who, heretofore, may 
have professed the most rigid orthodoxy according to their 
use of the term, there is no authority to restrain, condemn, 
or suspend him. In one chapel we see the doctrine of 
the Trinity denied ; in another that of infant baptism ; in 
a third the threefold order in the ministry, as it has ever 
existed in the Church of Christ 2 ; in a fourth, the need of 

1 Essays and Keviews, p. 151. 

2 This is what a saint of old, who received his crown of martyrdom 
within perhaps a dozen years of the death of St. John, taught on the 
subject of Episcopacy : " It is fitting that we should not only be called 
Christians, but be so. As some call their ruler Bishop, and yet do all 
things without him, I can never think that such as these have a good 
conscience, seeing they are not gathered together completely according 
to the command of God." — Ignatius ad Mag. iv. 



THE NEGATIVE THEOLOGY. 



367 



any ministry at all, according to the novel system of the 
Plymouth Brethren ; until, at length, the danger of inno- 
vation, and of departing from Catholic truth is seen in 
all its naked deformity, by the climax of religious infi- 
delity having been attained in the wicked follies of 
American Mormonism. 

Plunged, however, in fatal error, as the Unitarians of the 
sixteenth and the Mormons of the nineteenth centuries 
unquestionably are, neither of them can be said to belong 
to that school known under the name of Eationalists, or 
the students and promoters of the " negative theology," 
which the Essayist has pronounced to be "the sponta- 
neous recoil from some of the doctrines which are to be 
heard at church and chapel," on the part of those who 
boast themselves to be wise in the things of this world. 
Believing this rationalism or " negative theology " to be 
a feeble and unscientific attempt to paint religion in 
chiaro oscuro, from which all revealed truth is eliminated 
and left out, we are content to let its advocates speak for 
themselves, in order that we may see the substitute which 
some amongst us with marvellous subtilty would fain 
introduce in place of " the glorious gospel of the blessed 
God." 

" The religion of types and notions," says one of its 
advocates, " can travel only in a circle from whence 
there is no escape. It is but an elaborate process of self- 
confutation. After much verbiage it demolishes what 
is created, and having begun by assuming God to be 
angry, ends, not by admitting its own gross mistake, but 
by asserting Him to be changed and reconciled." 1 

" The Christian teacher," said another, " saw that God 
incarnates himself in man, and evermore goes forth anew 
to take possession of the world. He said, in this jubilee 



1 Mackay, Progress of Intellect, ii. 504. 



368 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



of sublime emotion, ' I am divine ; through me, God acts ; 
through me, speaks. Would you see God, see me; or, see 
thee, when thou also thinkest as I now think.' " 1 

Kant advances a step further in the " negative the- 
ology " speculation, and manifests his " distrust " of any- 
thing like " miraculous revelation," by daringly affirming 
that " Christ's healing the sick was by medical skill ; 
raising the dead, premature interment ; feeding five thou- 
sand people, the rich sharing with the poor ; stilling the 
tempest, by steering round a point which cut off the 
Avind ; our Lord's death, a mere swoon, restored by the 
warmth of the sepulchre and the effect of the spices," 
&c. &c. All such blasphemous follies may be sufficient 
to satisfy the disciples of that incredulous school to which 
the Essayists appear to lean, though of course rejected as 
absurd, and so manifestly absurd as not to need refutation, 
by every sane and thoughtful Christian. 

Another of the Essayists expresses himself respecting 
what is virtually " negative theology " on this wise : — 
" Our conduct," observes Mr. Pattison in his Essay " On 
the Tendencies of Religious Thought in England," " was 
thought of, not as a product or efflux of our character, but 
as regulated by our understanding ; by a perception of 
relations, or a calculation of consequences. This intel- 
lectual perception of regulative truth is religious faith. 
Faith is no longer the devout condition of the entire inner 
man. Its dynamic nature and interior working are not 
denied, but they are unknown ; and religion is made to 
regulate life from without, through the logical being and 
attributes of God, upon which an obligation to obey him 
can be raised." 2 In this we have the fatal mistake which 



1 Emerson's Christian Teacher. Essays, p. 511. Compare this with 
Buddhism as defined by one of its votaries at p. 364. 

2 Essays and Reviews, pp. 275, 276. 



VITAL KELIGI0X. 



369 



is so connnon to men who are content with natural reli- 
gion in place of spiritual — who exalt the head, and forget 
that the sum and substance of Divine truth may be said 
to consist in God's invitation to man, " My son, give me 
thy heart." The real Pelagian, who denies the corruption 
of the human heart, as an inheritance handed down from 
our first parent, naturally places the head, the intellect, 
the brain, first and foremost in his standard of religious 
truths. And it would have been a happy thing for 
himself and others if the Essayist, in place of committing 
himself, as he has done, with regard to Jeremy Taylor, 
had learnt a lesson of wisdom which another great divine 
of the same age has given on this subject. "There is 
nothing more easy," observes Bishop Hall, " than to say 
divinity by rote, and to discourse of spiritual matters 
from the tongue or pen of others ; but to hear God speak- 
ing to the soul, and to feel the power of religion in our- 
selves, and to express it out of the truth of experience 
within, is both rare and hard." Or consider the teaching 
of another distinguished minister of the present age on 
the same subject : "To make the wisdom of the New 
Testament," says Chalmers, " our wisdom, and its spirit 
our spirit, and its language our best-loved and best- 
understood language, there must be a higher influence 
upon the heart than what lies in human art or in human 
explanation, Till this is brought to pass, the doctrine of 
the Atonement, and the doctrine of conversion, and the 
doctrine of fellowship with the Father and the Son, and 
the doctrine of a believer's progressive holiness under the 
moral and spiritual power of £ the truth as it is in Jesus,' 
will, as to his own personal experience of its meaning, 
remain so many empty sounds, or so many deep and 
hidden mysteries." 

Such, however, is not the theology of the Eector of 
Lincoln College. After quoting Cudworth, who had 

B B 



370 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



rightly taught that the faith mentioned in Scripture as 
" the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of 
things not seen," was " not a mere believing of historical 
things, and upon artificial arguments or testimonies only, 
but a certain higher and diviner power in the soul 
that peculiarly corresponded with Deity," 1 the Essayist 
proceeds to erect his theological structure upon the 
foundation of reason, in place of that faith which is, as 
Scripture tells us, both the gift and the fruit of the Spirit, 
and without which it is impossible to be accepted of or to 
please God. " The inner light, or witness of the Spirit," 
says Mr. Pattison, " in the soul of the individual believer, 
had fallen into discredit, through the extravagancies to 
which it had given birth. It was disowned alike by 
Churchmen and Nonconformists, who agreed in sp*eaking 
with contemptuous pity of the 4 sectaries of the last age.' 
The reaction against individual religion led to this first 
attempt to base revealed truth on reason. And for the 
purpose for which reason was now wanted, the higher, or 
philosophic, reason was far less fitted than that universal 
understanding in which all men can claim a share. The 
' inner light,' which had made each man the dictator of 
his own creed, had exploded in ecclesiastical anarchy. 
The appeal from the frantic discord of the enthusiasts to 
reason must needs be — not to an arbitrary or particular 
reason in each man, but to a common sense, a natural 
discernment, a reason of universal obligation. As it was 
to be universally binding, it must be generally recognisable. 
It must be something not confined to the select few, a 
gift of the self-styled elect, but a faculty belonging to all 
men of sound mind and average capacity. Truth must 
be accessible to the bulk of mankind " (p. 291). 

No one can fail to perceive that such theology is in 



Intellectual System, Preface. 



RATIONALISTIC FOLLIES. 



371 



direct antagonism to what St. Paul taught ; and we con- 
clude, if the Essayist were pressed for a reply, he would be 
constrained to answer that the Apostle was not infallible, 
or else that we must accept his words in a non-literal and 
non-natural sense. Let us hear what he, who spake, as 
we know, by the Holy Ghost, really taught on this 
momentous and all-important subject. "We speak the 
wisdom of God," says St. Paul, " in a mystery, even the 
hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world 
unto our glory ; which none of the princes of this world 
knew ; for had they known it, they would not have 
crucified the Lord of Glory. But, as it is written, Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into 
the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared 
for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them 
unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, 
yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth 
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in 
him ? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but 
the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit 
of the world, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we 
might know the things which are freely given to us of 
God. Which things also we speak, not in the words 
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost 
teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But 
the natural man receive th not the things of the Spirit of 
God ; for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he 
know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 
Here it is clear that the Spirit of God teaches that the 
self-styled rationalist of all ages and all countries would 
learn truth by his own ratiocinations, receive nothing by 
faith, nor own any need of supernatural assistance. This 
was very much the character of the pretenders to philo- 



1 1 Corinthians, ii. 7 — 14. 

B B 2 



372 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



sophy, and the learned Grecians in those days, as it is of 
the German neologians in the present. Such do not 
and cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. 
Revelation is not with them a principle of Science ; but 
is looked upon by their distorted vision as delirium and 
dotage, the extravagant thoughts of deluded dreamers. 
They cannot receive the precious and really rational truths 
of Revelation in the love of them, so as to approve of and 
like them, and to be cordially subject to them. Such 
things are declared to be foolishness unto them. They 
view them as absurd, and contrary to natural reason ; 
they disrelish and reject them as insipid and distasteful, 
and they often make them the subject of banter and 
ridicule, through want of spiritual perception. At most, 
they can only know the literal and grammatical sense of 
the words of the inspired writers, or only in the theory, 
notionaliy and speculatively, not experimentally, spiritually, 
and savingly ; because such things only are spiritually dis- 
cerned in a spiritual manner, by a spiritual light, and under 
the influence and by the assistance of the Spirit of God. 
As there must be a natural visive faculty to discern natural 
things, so there must be a spiritual one to discern and 
approve of spiritual things, which the natural man, leaning 
upon his own unsanctified reason, has not. There is an 
anecdote related concerning Mr. Pitt, of more authenticity, 
we apprehend, than the one which Mr. Pattison gives of 
the same person, whom he represents as saying that 
Butler's Analogy " is a dangerous book, raising more 
doubts than it solves " (p. 306) ; that having once accom- 
panied Mr. Wilberforce to hear the celebrated Cecil 
preach, and who was peculiarly happy on the occasion in 
setting forth, with great power, the truths of the ever- 
lasting Gospel, he frankly confessed, in answer to the 
anxious question of his friend, that, " though he had paid 
close attention to the sermon, he could not understand at 
all what it meant." 



CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. 



373 



The late Professor Blunt, of Cambridge, distinguished 
alike for his learning, sobriety, and devotion, has recorded 
his impressions concerning the absolute impossibility of 
the minister of Christ effecting anything without the 
illuminating power of the Spirit, that it would be well if 
the Sector of Lincoln College, in the sister university, 
would ponder over and profit by the advice given by one 
who has a claim to be heard. " If the parish priest," he 
observes, " when sitting by the sick man's side, finds his 
ideas stagnant, and his feelings unmoved, — no power to 
address him and no knowledge of what to say, — he has 
reason to suspect that he has work to do nearer home, 
before he can be of much use there : that he must first 
be converted himself, and then strengthen his brother." 
Or, if we are content to accept the dying testimony of a 
layman of rare intellectual gifts, let us hear the last words 
of Dr. Gordon, of Hull, a glorious specimen of the 
Christian philosopher triumphing over death: — "All human 
learning is of no avail. Season must be put out of the 
question. I reasoned, and debated, and investigated, but 
I found no peace till I came to the Gospel as a little child, 
till I received it as a babe. Then such a light was shed 
abroad in my heart, that I saw the whole scheme at once, 
and I found pleasure the most indescribable. I saw there 
was no good deed in myself. Though I had spent hours 
in examining my conduct, I found nothing I had done 
would give me real satisfaction. It was always mixed up 
with something selfish. But when I came to the Gospel 
as a child, the Holy Spirit seemed to fill my heart. I 
then saw my selfishness in all its vivid deformity, and I 
found there was no acceptance with God, and no happi- 
ness except through the blessed Secleemer. I stripped off 
all my own deeds — threw them aside — went to Him 
naked. He received me as He promised He would, 
and presented me to the father ; then I felt joy unspeak- 

B B 3 



374 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



able, and all fear of death at once vanished." This is 
admirable, faithful, and rational in the true sense of the 
term, and not in the distorted sense of the Neologian 
school of the present day. It is a candid avowal of one 
conscious that He was soon to appear before the awful 
Being, who knows and will judge the secrets of all hearts, 
and that nothing can avail but the internal testimony of 
the Spirit, which, as St. Paul affirms, " itself beareth wit- 
ness with our spirit, that we are the children of God," and 
which has the same effect, only in a more perfect degree, 
of what the Apostle, in the same epistle, presents as the 
result of natural religion. " For when the Gentiles," he 
says, " which have not the law, do by nature the things 
contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law 
unto themselves : which shew the work of the law writ- 
ten in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, 
and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else ex- 
cusing one another." 1 It is, however, beyond all question 
true, that although there is in mankind a sort of natural 
conscience which confesses a distinction between good 
and evil, there is nothing in the heart of any man, who 
has not the teaching, sanctifying, and internal witnessing 
power of the Spirit, which corresponds with the principle 
of what the same Apostle calls " delighting in the law of 
God after the inner man." Here, the charmer may charm 
never so wisely, but in vain ; the minstrel may exert his 
utmost skill, and pour forth strains sweet as the melodies 
of heaven ; but there is no chord which vibrates to his 
touch, when he appeals to sinners, dead in trespasses and 
sins, in praise of the beauty of holiness, and the loveliness 
of spiritual religion. In the book of the Prophet Isaiah 
we thus find the Holy Ghost characterising the faithful 



Compare Romans, ii. 14, 15, with Romans, viii. 16. 



RATIONALISTIC INFIDELITY, 



375 



people of God : " Hearken unto me, ye that know 
righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law." 1 

The internal witness of the Spirit is the one grand 
esoteric doctrine of Christianity. What the Eleusinian 
mysteries were to the Grecian philosophers, that it is to the 
earnest disciple of Christ, with the wide difference which 
must ever exist between truth and error. It is in short 
what the Psalmist terms "the secret of the Lord," which, he 
adds, " is with them that fear Him." 2 And it is the anti- 
thesis to the lamentable philosophy of our Essayist, which 
can advance no further than " to suggest that either 
religious faith has no existence, or that it must be reached 
by some other road than that of the 'trial of the wit- 
nesses.' It is a reductio ad absurdum of common-sense 
philosophy, of home-baked theology, when we find that 
the result of the whole is that ' it is safer to believe in 
God, lest, if there should happen to be one, he might 
send us to hell for denying his existence.' (Maurice, 
Essays, p. 236.) " 3 

There was truer philosophy in the happy reproof which 
Bishop Atterbury gave to a sceptical soldier, who once 
boasted in his presence that the only prayer he could find 
time to utter before an engagement, was " Oh God, if 
there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul," by ob- 
serving that he once had a friend, who, under similar 
circumstances, prayed, " Oh ! God if I forget Thee, do 
not Thou forget me," though whether such faith would 
come under the description of the Essayist's " home-baked 
theology," we can scarcely take upon ourselves to say. 
We do not for a moment imagine that Mr. Pattison, or 
any of the clerical Essayists, are yet prepared to go the 
same lengths which the more advanced members of his 



i Isaiah, li. 7. 2 Ps; xxv. 14. 

3 Essays and Reviews, p. 296. 

B B 4 



376 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



school have already avowed, as we may learn from the 
terms which foreign rationalists do not hesitate to apply 
to some of our most cherished principles. Thus, at 
Groningen, in Holland, our recognition of the Bible as 
God's Word is called " Bibliolatry," the inspiration of the 
New Testament, " Apostle-deification," and the Doctrine 
of the Atonement, " Blood Theology ; " but we cannot 
avoid observing how clearly the statements they have put 
forth, and the onslaught they have made on much that is 
contained in the unerring word of God, tends in that 
dangerous direction. 

That Mr. Pattison's leanings are unhappily so directed, 
we conclude from the manner in which he permits him- 
self to speak of a " godless orthodoxy, threatening in the 
present day, as in the fifteenth century, to extinguish 
religious thought altogether ; when nothing is allowed in 
the Church of England, but the formulas of past thinkings, 
which have long lost all sense of any kind." 1 It is need- 
less to remark that this declaration, so contrary to fact, 
would be discreditable to any one who is desirous of 
testing the requirements of our Church upon the common 
principles of truth and justice ; but proceeding from the 
quarter it does, it reflects alike upon its authors and the 
school to which he belongs. But it may be said that 
we, as clergymen of the Church of England, bound by 
the same moral obligations as the clerical Essayists, are 
not the best judges of the failings of our brethren. Let 
us therefore take the most unexceptionable witnesses 
that can be found of the tendency of these " Essays and 
Eeviews," as they appear to those without our com- 
munion. If the old adage of the Eoman poet be true. 
Fas est ab hoste docere, the opinions of those, who cer- 
tainly are no friends of the Church of Christ, but who 



Essays and Reviews, p. 297, 



REVIEWERS UPON " THE ESSAYS." 



377 



appear to entertain a very reverential regard for the 
Essayists, may be accepted as a significant proof of the 
morality and effect of their writings in general. " Our 
satisfaction and our sympathy" (with the Essayists), ob- 
serves a recent reviewer of their work, " which would 
else be complete, are weakened when we call to mind 
the conditions under which these great truths and noble 
sentiments have been given to the world by Mr. Jowett 
and the enlightened men associated with him in the 
volume before us. The beliefs which these men avow 
are in open contradiction, if language is to bear its 
natural meaning, with the creeds which they have deli- 
berately pledged themselves to accept. This is a painful 
part of the subject, which we would gladly avoid ; but it 
is one of which the moral bearings are so important, that 
we cannot refrain from uttering what seems to us the 
obvious dictate of common sense and simple veracity. 
Let us, however, be understood as clearly distinguishing 
between the person and the thing. The position occupied 
by these distinguished men, in their academic and clerical 
relations, as it presents itself to our minds, is indefensible, 
logically and morally. But we should be sorry to be- 
lieve, and we do not believe, that it appears in the same 
light to them." 1 

" No fair mind," says another, " can close this volume, 
without feeling it to be, at bottom, in direct antagonism 

to the whole system of popular belief In object, in 

spirit, and in method, no less than in general design, this 
book is incompatible with the broad principles on which 
the Protestantism of Englishmen rests. The most elaborate 
reasoning, to prove that they are in harmony, can never 
be anything but futile, and ends in becoming sincere. The 



1 National Review, No. xxiii. Old Creeds and New Beliefs, pp. 162, 
163. 



378 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



mass of ordinary believers may well ask to be protected 
from such friends as their worst and most dangerous 
enemies. Of one thing we may be quite sure, that the 
public will never be brought to believe that the Bible is 
full of ' untruths ;' that it does not contain authentic or 
even contemporary record of facts, and is a medley of 
late compilers, and yet withal remains the Book of Life. 
Yet all this our Essayists call on them to admit. The 
men and women around us are told that the whole 
scheme of salvation has to be entirely re-arranged and 
altered. Divine rewards and punishments , the fall, ori- 
ginal sin, the vicarious penalty, and salvation by faith, 
are all, in the natural sense of the terms, denounced as 
figments or exploded blunders. The Mosaic history dis- 
solves into a mass of ill-digested legends, the Mosaic 
ritual into an Oriental system of priestcraft, and the 
Mosaic origin of the earth and man sinks amidst the 
rubbish of rabbinical cosmogonies." 1 

If the opinion of a foreign friend of the Essayists, occu- 
pying a more advanced position on the broad road of 
scepticism than they have yet attained, be worth listening 
to, let us attend to the following : " The Essays," writes 
an American, " a book published by six very influential 
and learned clergymen, and one layman of the Estab- 
lished Church, is a work of the greatest importance and 
significance. It sets aside the old theology entirely, and 
propounds the rational views of Paine and Voltaire, with 
just that mixture of cloudiness which you might expect 
from persons who, while they see the folly of the old 
superstitions, yet remember that they are clergymen, and 
feel that they are but partially independent and free. 
We are on the eve of a great religious revolution. But 
few of the high and mighty ones speak so freely as we 



1 Westminster Eeview, No. xxxvi. Art. Neo- Christianity. 



THE OPINIONS OF STRAUSS. 



379 



do, but they think freely. Many of our great writers 
cling to the doctrine of God and of a future state ; but 
they have no more faith in the Divine authority of the 
Bible, or in the supernatural origin of Christianity, than I 
or you. The works of Baden Powell, Professor Jowett, 
&c, are doing a world of good. The Oxford Essays are 
creating quite a sensation. The good time seems to be 
really drawing nigh." 1 

Or if the opinion be of weight concerning the writings, 
not of the Essayists themselves, but of their co-rationalists in 
Germany, by one whose name ranks high with that school, 
let us hear what Strauss has said upon this subject : — 
" To no one is the Apostle's Creed or the Augsburg Con- 
fession any longer an adequate expression of his religious 
consciousness. No one believes any longer in any of the 
New Testament miracles (to say nothing of those of the 
Old), from the supernatural conception to the ascension. 
He either explains them away into natural events, or 
understands them as legends. And if this be the case 
with thoughtful laymen, it stands no better with the 
clergy. Wherefore, then, these subterfuges ? Why this 
hypocrisy before others and themselves ? Is it worthy of 
men, in their relations with religion, to make out then- 
case before her like a crouching and artful slave, with 
half words and empty evasions ? Why not boldly speak 
out at once ? Why not confess to one another, that while 
they can no longer recognise in the Bible anything more 
than a mixture of poetry and fact, and in the Church 
dogmas only symbols, that still retain a certain signifi- 
cance, they nevertheless continue attached with unaltered 
reverence to the moral contents of Christianity, and the 
character of its founder, so far as its human outline can 
yet be traced, amidst the cloud of marvels in which his 



i National Reformer, Nov. 24th, 1860 



380 



KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



earliest biographers have wrapped it ? But it may be 
asked, ought we in that case still to be called Christians ? 
I know not. But is the name everything ? This I know, 
that we shall then become once more true, honest, un- 
sophisticated, and therefore better men than before. 
Moreover, we shall remain Protestants, yea, then for the 
first time real Protestants." 1 

In opposition to this daring mixture of rationalism, 
infidelity, and self-delusion, let us hear the opinion of 
one to whom Bunsen confessedly bowed as the greatest 
of modern authorities on this same subject. " In my 
opinion," wrote the illustrious Niebuhr, " lie is not a 
Protestant Christian who does not receive the historical 
facts of Christ's early life, in their literal acceptation, 
with all their miracles, as equally authentic with any 
event recorded in history, and whose belief in them 
is not as firm and tranquil as his belief in the latter; 
and who has not the most absolute faith in the articles 
of the Apostles' Creed, taken in their grammatical sense ; 
who does not consider every doctrine and every precept 
of the New Testament as undoubted divine revelation, in 
the sense of the Christians of the first century, who knew 
nothing of Theopneustia. Moreover, a Christianity after 
the fashion of the modern philosophers and pantheists, 
without a personal God, without immortality, without 
human individuality, without historical faith, is no Chris- 
tianity at all to me, though it may be a very intellectual, 
very ingenious philosophy. I have often said, / do not 
know what to do with a metaphysical God, and that I will 
have nought but the God of the Bible, who is heart to heart 
with us." 2 



1 D. F. Strauss, On the Select Dialogues of Ulrich von Hutten, 
Vorrede, p. xlix. 

2 Niebuhr's Life and Letters, vol. ii. p. 123. 



THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 381 

Commending the opinions of the illustrious Mebuhr, 
as well as those of the German rationalists and English 
reviewers, to the attention of Mr. Pattison and his brother 
Essayists, we must protest against their ungenerous treat- 
ment of Butler, Paley, and other divines, respecting the 
" evidences " adduced by them in behalf of the truths 
of the Gospel, to say nothing of their suspicious silence 
respecting the still stronger evidences which this present 
age has been privileged to receive. The remark of one 
of the Fathers — " If you are a believer as you ought to 
be, and love Christ as you ought to love Him, you have 
no need of miracles, for these are given to unbelievers," 1 
— may be equally applied to the evidences of the Christian 
religion. To such disciples, who thus manifest by their 
humility the highest order of grace, there is no need of 
treating the great Author of Revelation otherwise than 
as we treat a friend in whom we have perfect confidence. 
We take Him at His word. But to those who prefer to 
be ranked in one of the three schools of error, either as 
rationalists, semi-sceptics, or thorough infidels, evidences 
in confirmation of the truth are valuable to confront, 
confound, and to overthrow the petty arguments which 
the Essayists and their sympathisers have brought against 
the Bible. Hence it is as satisfactory, as it is natural, to 
find that the evidences, which such masterly writers as 
Bishop Butler and Paley adduced during the last century 
in behalf of the truth, have been amply enlarged by the 
advance of Science and of antiquarian research during the 
present. It is not too much to say, that the very rocks 
of Behistun, the stones of Nineveh, and the tombs of 
Egypt can no longer hold their peace ; but that, according 
to the appointed time of Him who " worketh all things 
after the counsel of his own will," they have risen, as it 



Clnysos. Horn, xxiii. in Johan. 



382 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



were, as this sceptical age is drawing to a close, in their 
majesty and strength, to rebuke the folly and the 
blasphemy of those who have either played the part of 
the infidel, or denied the existence of God. 

§ 7. In conclusion we may point to the picture which 
Mr. Pattison has attempted to draw of " the Evangelical 
School," though he admits its unfinished condition, as a 
fresh instance of the cloudy state of the author's mind, and 
of the mystic darkness with which, like the cuttle fish when 
pursued, he and his brother Essayists have enveloped 
themselves when treating of the fundamental truths of 
our religion. " Because legal preaching, as they (the Evan- 
gelical and Methodist generation of teachers who succeeded 
the Hanoverian divines) phrased it, had failed, they would 
essay Gospel preaching. The preaching of justification 
by works had not the power to check wickedness, there- 
fore justification by faith, the doctrine of the Eeformation, 
was the only saving truth. This is not meant as a com- 
plete account of the origin of the Evangelical School. 
It is only one point of view — that point which connects 
the school with the general line of thought this paper has 
been pursuing. This doctrine of conversion by super- 
natural influence was, in some way or other, preaching — 
preaching, too, not as rhetoric, but as the annunciation of 
a specific doctrine — the Gospel. They certainly insisted 
6 on the heart ' being touched, and that the Spirit only 
had the power savingly to affect the heart ; but they acted 
as though this were done by an rppeal to the reason, and 
scornfully rejected the idea of religious education" 1 This 
concluding sentence betrays at once the animus of the Es- 
sayist's mincl respecting the Catholic nature of Evangelical 
truth in general, as well as the conduct of the Beveridges,* 
the Eomaines, the Scotts, the Cecils, and the leaders of the 



Essays and Reviews, p. 326. 



THE EVANGELICAL SCHOOL OF THE LAST CENTURY. 383 



Evangelical School in the eighteenth century in particular. 
The introductory prayer of the Communion Service, which 
the Church so lovingly instructs her children to offer, 
"Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, and all 
desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid ; cleanse 
the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy 
Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee, and worthily 
magnify Thy holy name, through Christ our Lord," — is 
the real key to the understanding of the motives, the 
actions, and the marvellous success of the Evangelical 
School towards the close of the last century. To assert 
that they acted as though " heart conversion," as the great 
Augustine terms it, were effected by appealing to the 
reason, and that they scornfully rejected the idea of reli- 
gious instruction, is so preposterous that it does not need 
refutation. 

Did the Essayist know anything of " the inspiration 
of the Spirit" in the sense in which our Church uses 
the expression ; had he any of that internal witness, of 
which St. Paul speaks, in his own heart, he would not 
have committed the lamentable blunder he has done in 
writing on a subject which he has proved himself so in- 
competent to judge and to teach. The work of the Spirit 
in the awakening, renewing, sanctifying, teaching, guiding, 
edifying, and building up of every human being who is 
" meet for the inheritance of the saints in light," as con- 
trasted with anything like appealing to reason in the 
sense of the rationalistic school of all times, may be truly 
characterised as the pivot doctrine of the Evangelical 
School of the eighteenth century. And until that great 
but elementary truth is fully realised, there can be no per- 
ception of the motive power which actuates the faithful 
disciple of Christ of all ages and in all places. The man- 
ner and way of the Spirit's action upon the soul is truly 
mysterious, and we cannot attempt to unveil it. As the 



384 



REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 



dew, which falls from heaven in the stillness of the night, 
is found at morning light hanging upon the leaves, and 
enriching the arid soil, and we naturally wonder whence 
it came and who hath begotten it, so is the way of the 
Spirit's dealing with the soul of man. And although this 
important work may have been unaccompanied by any 
marvellous phenomena, or voices from heaven, or any ex- 
ternal visions, such as the shepherds saw when keeping 
their watch by night in Bethlehem's fields ; nevertheless 
to such an one in the inward man it is declared, " I bring 
thee good tidings of great joy, for unto thee is born this 
day the Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." To the soul 
of the awakened sinner has this testimony been borne, and 
" the record is that God hath given to him eternal life, 
and this life is in His Son " (1 John, v. 11). 

Whereas, on the other hand, he who is content with 
letting his religious faith rest upon the reasoning powers 
of his own corrupt and unsanctified mind, and who is 
destitute of the witness of the Spirit, from whom alone, 
as our Church teaches, " all good things do come," abso- 
lutely knows nothing of the power of the Gospel, or its 
overwhelmingly great and glorious design. Such an one 
may discuss its evidences, may speculate upon its doctrines, 
may fancy that he can reason about its truths, and even 
may observe its institutions ; but as long as he is without 
its immortalising principle, he can only be compared to a 
man amusing himself with the leaves, instead of feeding 
on the fruits, of the tree of life. 



INDEX. 



ABR 

Abraham's birth, time of, 95 ; in Egypt, 
time of, 97; his contemporaries in Ba- 
bylon and Persia, 99 

Abydos, tablet of, discovered by Mr. 
Banks, 113 

Airy, Professor, mode of ascertaining 
the distance from the sun, 247; his 
opinion respecting the supposed oc- 
cupation of Aldebaran by Venus, 
90 

American tradition of the flood, 85 
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 

justification, 352 
Apophis, Pharaoh, patron of Joseph, 121, 

122 

Apocalypse, date of, 19, 20, 333 
Apostasy, meaning of the term in Scrip- 
ture, 179 

Archives, Roman, the testimony of, to 
the crucifixion, 194 

Aristotle's interpretation of Plato's cos- 
mogony, 227 

Athanasian Creed, the requirements of, 
343 

Atterbury, Bishop, anecdote of, 375 
Augustine, St., on truth, 5; his opinions 
on the Millennium, 302 



Babbage, Mr., on the length of the 
formation of the earth's crust, 244 

Beast of the Apocalypse, the number of 
his name, various interpretations con- 
cerning, 334 

Berosus on the Noachian Deluge, 80, 81 ; 
in harmony with the Scripture ac- 
count of the flood, 86, 88 ; on the early 
history of Babylon, 93 

Bessel, his discovery of a parallax to a 
fixed star, 247 

Birch, Mr., reading of the hieroglyph 
respecting the great famine in Egypt, 
127 ; decipherment of the Karnak 
obelisk at Rome, 138 



CHE 

Blunt, Professor, on conversion, 372 
Bohlen, the German rationalist, his scep- 
ticism, 96 

Brahmin, an Indian, on the English 
Bible, 6 

Buckland's, Dr., refutation of Hugh 

Miller, 234 
Buddhism, religion of, described, 356- 

365 

Bunsen, Dr. Arnold's opinion of, 24; on 
Daniel's four empires, 31 ; respecting 
biblical chronology, 58; on the gra- 
dual formation of language, 72 ; du- 
ration of Israel in Egypt, 105 ; dis- 
covery of King Goose in the Book of 
the Dead, 116 ; misapplication of the 
great famine in Egypt, during the 
reign of Sesortosis L, 127, 128 ; his 
denial of Pharaoh being drowned in 
the Red Sea, 148, 149; his denial re- 
specting the age of Moses, 151 ; his 
charge against the Usserian chrono- 
logy, 158 

Burke, Edmund, his definition of Scrip- 
ture, 285 

Butler, Bishop, his analogy of religion 

quoted, 268 
Butler, Professor Archer, respecting the 

miracles of the Bible, 191 

Oallisthenes on the astronomical re- 
cords at Babylon, 86 

Catholicity defined by Vincent of Lerins, 
344 

Chalmers, Dr., comparison of Butler and 
Bacon, 11; his comparison of reve- 
lation and science, 265; on geology 
and Scripture, 304 ; on spiritual truth, 
369 

Champollion on the harmony between 
the records of Scripture and Egypt, 
92, 93 

Chedorlaomer, King of Persia, time of, 
100 



C 



c 



386 



INDEX. 



CHI 

China, seven years' famine in, 131 
Chinese tradition of the flood, 82 
Chinese chronology in harmony with 
Scripture, 94 ; teaching in harmony 
with that of the Jesuits, 339 
Chronology of Scripture confirmed by 
science, 59 ; of the Bible, compared 
with that of Bunsen, 64 ; of the He- 
brew text superior to all others, 65 ; 
of the Septuagint erroneous, 67 ; of 
Archbishop Usher, 68 ; of Clinton, 
69; of the ancient Persians, 71; bib- 
lical, from the time of the Exode 
to the building of the Temple, 159- 
162 

Chrysostom on miracles, 380 

Clement of Alexandria on philosophy 

and theology, 337 
Comets, mistaken opinion concerning, 

238 

Confusion of tongues, 73 
Conscience, the power of, 269 
Cosmogonies, the principal heathen, in 

harmony with Scripture, 236 
Cosmogony of the Hindoos referred to, 

261; the Orphic quoted, 358 
'Cosmos Indicopleustes, his allusion to 

the flood, 81 
Cowie, Rev. B., on the inspiration of 

Scripture, 283 
Crucifixion, date of, 39, 43 
Cuneiform inscription at the India House 

respecting the building of Babylon, 

33 

Cyprian, his definition of the Catholic 

Church, 340 
Cyrus, prophecy concerning, by Isaiah, 

294-296 ; capture of Babylon, 297 



Day, meaning of the word in Scrip- 
ture, 255 

Daniel, genuineness and authenticity of, 
25-32 ; third ruler in Babylon, how 
explained, 35 

Darwin on the existence of man in 
Egypt, 76; his "Origin of Species" 
quoted, 209-2 13 

Desprez, Rev. P., his interpretation of 
the Apocalypse, 332 

Diodorus Siculus on difficulties of Egyp- 
tian history, 61 ; on the early discovery 
of America, 85 

DAubigny on the different periods of 
animal and vegetable existence, 243 

Dyaks of Borneo, their tradition of the 
flood, 83 

Dynasty, the 18th of Egyptian kings, 
136 



GOR 

Earth, the, its internal heat, 241-243 
Ebury, Lord, his attempt to promote 

Liturgical revision, 346 
Egypt, destruction of the first born, 146 
Egyptian history in harmony with 

Scripture, 114, 115; priesthood, great 

change in their position under the 

rule of Joseph, 126; great famine in 

Egypt, 127-130 
Egyptians in Assyria, 153 
Elliott, Dr., deemed mad on account of 

his scientific opinions regarding the 

sun, 239 

Emerson on the negative theology, 
367 

England, time when the Gospel was first 
preached in, 320 

Ephesus, council of, condemnatory of 
the Church of Rome, 321 

Eratosthenes, great difference between 
him and Manetho, 61 ; Egyptian 
chronologers, contradictions of, 63; 
account of the flood, 83; in harmony 
with Scripture, 88 : different, modes 
of writing in the country, 92 

Essays and Reviews, the teaching of, 
described by the National Review, 
376 ; by the Westminster Review, 
377 ; by an American Rationalist, 378 

Eupolis, his hymn to the Creator quoted, 
311 

Eusebius on the old Chronicle of Egypt, 

73; testimony to Sanchoniatho, 80 
Evangelical school, the, teaching of, 383 
Evidence, the, to Scripture from pro- 
phecy, 172; from miracles, 187; from 
science, 197 

Fichte, John Gottlieb, his testimony 

to the Bible, 224 
Fleming, his work on prophecy referred 

to, 184 

Flood, the, universality of, 79 
Fullom's " Marvels of Science " quoted, 
245 

Futurists, the, their mistaken interpre- 
tation of Scripture, 180 

Gtbnesis, i. 1, 2, explanation of, 237 
Geology defined by Sir John Herschel, 
232 

Gibbon, his scepticism, 193; treatment 
of Tertullian, 193; his character de- 
scribed by Porson, 193 

Goodwin, Mr., on the Mosaic cosmo- 
gony, 223, 225 his scepticism, 263 

Gordon, Dr., on Christian philosophy, 
373 



INDEX. 



387 



GRE 

Greek tradition of the flood, 84 
Gregory the Great, his view of Holy 
Scripture, 270; his condemnation of 
the claim to universal supremacy, 324 



XJ all, Bishop, on vital religion, 369 
Hall, Robert, his eulogy on the English 

Liturgy, 347 
Hieroglyphic record of a great famine 

in Egypt, deciphered by Mr. Birch, 

127 

Hincks, Dr., his reading of the Nimroud 

Obelisk in the British Museum, 288 
Hindu tradition of the flood, 82 
Hooker on the inspiration of Scripture, 
278 

Hopkins, Mr., on the thickness of the 

crust of the earth, 242 
Horner, Leonard, on the alluvial soil of 

Egypt, 75 
Horsley, Bishop, on Justification, 48 
Humboldt invited to visit the earth's 

interior, 241 
Hyksos period, the, explanation of, 62, 

100, 110 

Ignatius on Episcopacy, 366 

Inscription on the Cross, 279 

Inspiration of Scripture, meaning of the 
term, 278; how used by St. Paul, 283 

Irenaeus, his testimony respecting Poly- 
carp, 177; his opinion of the Millen- 
nium, 300; on the date of the Apoca- 
lypse, 333 

Isaiah, 53rd chapter of, prophecy in, 15 
Israelites in Egypt, duration of, 105- 
109, 117,135; proof of their existence 
in Egypt, 111; their arrival in Egypt, 
supposed painting of, 124; painting 
of making bricks in Egypt, 141, 142 

Jews, restoration of, taught literally, 
symbolically, and figuratively in 
Scripture, 178 ; ancient tradition 
amongst them, that it would syn- 
chronise with the fall of Rome, 178; 
their doctrine of the Trinity, 312; 
their sufferings foretold in the Book 
of Deuteronomy, 315; how fulfilled 
during the Christian dispensation, 
316-319 

Johnson, Dr., his argument respecting 

miracles, 188 
Jonah, miracle respecting, 45 
Joseph in Egypt, 101, 102, 111, 122-133; 

his tomb discovered, 132 
Jowett, Professor, his scepticism as re- 



MAS 

gards the origin of man, 210, 286; and 
of Scripture, 275; on the interpreta- 
tion of Scripture, 274 ; his view of the 
inspiration of Scripture, 276, 277; his 
scepticism as regards prophecy, 293; 
his assertion of adverse statements in 
Scripture, 354 

Justification by faith, harmony of St. 
Paul and St. James respecting, 49; 
as taught by the Fathers, 349-351; 
explained "by St. Augustine and 
Bishop Beveridge, 354 

Justin Martyr, his apology quoted, 194; 
his opinion of the Millennium, 299 

Kant on the negative theology, 307 
Karnak, chamber of, discovered by Mr. 
Burton, 113; contains an inscription 
of a King of Egypt's war against 
Canaan, 175 

Laud, Archbishop, his opinion respect- 
ing Liturgical revision, 347 

Lepsius on the sojourn of Israel in 
Egypt, 105 

Light, speed at which it travels, 203; 
its utility defined by George Stephen- 
son, 252 

Locke, his definition of the Bible, 270 
Longevity, modern instances of, 103 
Lyell, Sir Charles, on the origin of 
species, 220; his conclusion respecting 
the age of the Ealls of Niagara, 257 

Macculloch, Mr., on the formation 

of the coal beds, 244 
Mackay on the negative theology, 367 
Maitland, Dr., on Daniel's Four Em- 
pires, 32 

Mammoth, a, the skeleton of, at St. 
Petersburg, explained by a clergy- 
man, 228 

Man, his origin, theory concerning, as 
propounded by Darwin, 212; by Pro- 
fessor Oken, 213; by Dr. Darwin, 
sen., 214; by Mon. Maillet, 2i4; by 
Gerard, 215; by the author of the 
Anti- Jacobin, 216; by Ovid, 217; 
by Lord Monboddo, 218; rejected by 
Owen,219,220; by Sir Charles Lyell, 
220; by Wollaston, 221 

Man of Sin, the Prophecy concerning, 
applied by the Church of Ireland to 
Rome, 323 

Manetho, the Egyptian historian, 59 

Martyn, Henry, his argument with the 
Mahometans respecting miracles, 196 

Masorah, Jewish, on Prophecy, 18 



c c 2 



388 



INDEX. 



MAU 

Maurice, Professor, on the date of the 
Apocalypse, 333; his scepticism, 375 

M'Cosh, Dr., on the harmony between 
Revelation and Science, 265 

Menes, proto-monarch of Egypt, 62 

Miiller, Professor Max, on the one 
primeval language, 72 

Millennium, the, ancient opinions con- 
cerning, 299-303 

Miller, Hugh, his refutation of Darwin, 
210; the same of Archbishop Cullen, 
225; of the late Dean of York, 231 ; 
his own hypothesis respecting the 
Mosaic cosmogony, 233; on the 
formation of the chalk cliffs of Eng- 
land, 245; his explanation of God's 
resting time, 259 

Mosaic cosmogony in harmony with 
science, 235, 251,253, 254; record, 
the different opinions respecting, 
227,232 

Moses, his mighty deeds in Egypt, 
140, 141 

Murchison, Sir Roderick, his Silurian 
system quoted, 249 



Newman, Dr., his description of the 
English Bible, 271; his description of 
the Church of Rome, 329; his defence 
of the Church of Rome, 329 

Newton, B. W., on Babylon the Great, 
21, 331 

Niagara, age of, in harmony with the 
Mosaic record, 258 

Niebuhr, his noble defence of Chris- 
tianity, 380 

Ninevite inscriptions in harmony with 
Scripture, 289 

Oppert, Mon , discovery of a cunei- 
form inscription respecting the deluge, 
89 

Oracles, heathen, their failure, 183 

Origen on 53rd of Isaiah, 16 

Osburn's Monumental History of Egypt, 

62; respecting unburnt bricks in 

Egypt, 77; on the duration of the 

Israelites in Egypt, 105 
Oxford, introduction of English Bible 

at, 281 

Parker, Theodore, his denial of 
miracles, 196 

Pattison, Rev. H., his hypothesis re- 
specting religious truth, 336 ; his mis- 
application of the term Catholic, 340; 
on the negative theology, 368 ; on the 



ROM 

witness of the Spirit, 370; his denial 
of freedom in the Church of England, 
376; his opinion of the Evangelical 
School, 382. 

Pearson, Bishop, unfairly treated by Dr. 
Williams, 14 

Pharaoh, the, that knew not Joseph, 
133,137; Pharaoh's daughter, who 
preserved Moses, 139; of the Exode, 
144, 149 

Pharaohs in Egypt, double line of con- 
temporary, 113 

Phoenician inscriptions in harmony with 
Scripture, 29 1 

Pitt, Mr., anecdotes concerning, 278, 
372 

Platina,his story concerning Pope Bene- 
dict IX., 322 

Plato, respecting the rotation of the 
Earth, 227 

Pliny, his wonderful tales respecting 
whales, 46 

Pope Pius III., his Bull of universal 
excommunication, 181 

Powell, Professor Baden, on the evidence 
of Christianity, 172; his opinion in- 
specting miracles, 189, 190, 195; his 
scepticism in regard to the origin of 
man, 208 

Predictions, uninspired, respecting Rus- 
sia and Rome, 185, 186 

Prophecy of Genesis iii. 5, 173 ; re- 
specting the downfall of Egypt, 175 

Pye Smith, Dr., his work on geology 
quoted, 246; his definition of Reve- 
lation and Science, 264 

Pyramids, mention of, in Job, 132 

Pythagorean notion, the, of annihilation 
referred to, 360 

Rabbinical version of the history of 

Jesus, 22, 23 
Ramesses, Pharaoh, hieroglyph of, in 

Syria, 155, 156 
Rock, the, different interpretations of 

the Fathers concerning, 338 
Roemer, his discovery of the speed of 

light, 247 

Rome, the Church of, her mysterious 
nature, 182; her heresy in the fourth 
century, 321; her present condition 
described by Dr. Newman, 329 ; with 
regard to the unanimous consent of 
the Fathers, 338; her opposition to 
the Bible, 341 ; convicted of apostasy, 
345 ; opposed to the Catholic Church, 
349; her teaching on the doctrine of 
Justification, 353; Bishops of, above 
law, 322 ; their character during the 
middle ages, 327, 328 



INDEX. 



389 



RON 

Ronge, De, his translation of the Sallier 
papyri, 118; and of an Egyptian 
romance, founded on Joseph's his- 
tory, 123 

Eosetta stone, quotation from, 126 

Sanchoniatho respecting the origin 
of man, 80 

Scripture and Science, harmony be- 
tween, proved by Gen. i. 3, 199; 
Lev. xvii. 11, 199; Deut. xxxii. 2, 
200; Job xiv. 7, 9, 200; Job xxvi. 7, 
201; Job xxviii. 23, 25, 202; Job 
xxxviii. 31, 202; Psalm cxlvii. 16, 
204; Prov. viii. 27, 204; Eccl. i. 5,6, 
205; Eccl. i. 7, 206; John xix. 34, 
207 

Scripture, instances of omissions in, 
305, 306; of interpolations, 307; of 
faulty readings, 308, 309 

Seventy weeks, the, interpretation of, 
36, 43 

Shiloh, the, prophecy concerning, 10, 174 

Shepherds an abomination to the Egyp- 
tians, how explained, 117 

Shishak, Pharaoh, his capture of Jeru- 
salem, 163, 288 

Socinus, the introducer of the modern 
interpretation of Regeneration, 346 

Solomon's temple, date of, 157 

Strauss, his rejection of the Bible, 379 

Struve's, Professor, table of time for 
the transmission of stellar light, 248 

Stuart, Professor Moses, on various 
readings in Scripture, 15 

Summary respecting Bunsen's Biblical 
researches, 164-168 

Sun, opinions respecting the, entertained 
by Nicolaus de Cusa, 239 ; by Sir W. 
Herschel and M. Arago, 240 

Syrians, the, effeminacy of, 155 

Tacitus, his description of the Jews, 
117, 310; his account of the different 
forms of government in ancient Rome, 
334 

Taylor, Isaac, on the preservation of 
Scripture, 281 

Temple, Dr., on forgeries in the Bible, 
304 ; on the interpretation of the 
Bible, 268; his mode of accounting 
for the preservation of the Jews, 313; 
on the supremacy of the Church of 
Rome, 320-324; considers the Papacy 
as a schoolmaster, 326 



ZAP 

Tertullian on truth, 4; his opinion on 
the Millennium; 301; respecting the 
rapid spread of Christianity, 192; 
his Apology quoted, 194 

Theology, how blasphemed in Holland, 
376 

Truth defined by Tertullian, 4; by Plu- 
tarch, 224 ; by Milton, 224 ; famous 
anagram on, 337 ; travestied by Igna- 
tius Loyola, 339 

Tyrian annals respecting the building 
of the Temple, 161 

Mildert, Bishop, his opinion of 
the Church of Rome, 179 



W estminster Review, the, its inter- 
pretation of the Apocalypse, 332-335 

Wilkinson, Sir Gardner, on the alluvial 
soil of Egypt, 75; his explanation of 
Heliopolis, 119 

Wilson, Rev. H. B., his scepticism as 
regards Scripture, 94, 272; his oppo- 
sition to the Athanasian Creed, 341; 
his views on the doctrine of Justifi- 
cation, 348 ; his opinion of Buddhism, 
355; on the negative theology, 365 

Williams, Dr. Rowland, on Providence, 
5 ; respecting English rationalists, 
7 ; his opinion on the Bible, 8 ; on the 
prophecy of the Shiloh, 9 ; his opinion 
of Butler, 11; contempt for Keith, 
12; on Isaiah liii., 13; on the pro- 
phecies of Psalms xxii. and xxxiv., 
17; on Messianic prophecies, 21; on 
the Prophet Daniel, 23, 24; denial of 
Daniel's prophecies, 35 ; rejects the 
personality of Jonah, 43 ; on Justifi- 
cation, 47 ; on the doctrine of the Tri- 
nity, 50; on the Athanasian Creed, 
51 ; estimate of Bunsen, 60 ; his 
condemnation of Bunsen, 169 

Wiseman, Cardinal, his song upon Pio 
Nono, 331 

Word of God, the, how used in Scrip- 
ture, 273,274 

York, the late Dean of, his theory re- 
specting the deluge, 228, 231 

Zaphnath-paaneah, Joseph's name, 
how explained, 122 



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